...an "editor" shouldn't be saying this, but language is fluid and grammar nazis need to get over themselves and get a life.  Sure, we need a general set of rules so people can write and speak in mutually intelligible ways, but they should be viewed more as suggestions or guides rather than line in the sand rules.  Usage can and does change over time, and there's no getting away from that.  This is especially true with a bastardized language like English, which draws its roots from Germanic, Scandinavian, and Romance tongues and has more than the usual amount of exceptions, multi-definition words, alternative spellings, etc.  Many of those irregularities, which give English its exceptional level of nuance, developed out of exactly the sort of "mistakes" that people like Deck and Herson love to harp about.  One wonders why such things upset them so much - perhaps mommy did not praise them enough when they won the third grade spelling bee?

Standards of English usage are not very good these days.  The inappropriate use of the word "real" as an adjective, for example ("he is a real good speller!") has become so widespread that it seems to be ineradicable.  Important works of literature and music often have grammatical errors.  Does anyone remember the song by Paul McCartney and Wings, "Live And Let Die" which contains the very bizarre phrase, "And in this ever-changing world in which we live in"?  Horrendous.  But there's nothing we can do about it.  Professional meteorologists broadcasting on prestigious networks still do not pronounce the word "temperature" correctly.  I know of some professional jewelers who do not pronounce the word "jewelry" correctly.  I find this annoying.  It's not just English, either.  I recently was watching a gardening show on TV in which the professional gardening adviser referred to nematodes as microscopic insects (they are, of course, worms).  A major news item carried by the international press referred to beryllium as a "toxic heavy metal" (it is, of course, a light metal).  And so forth.

But, in the face of all this error, the prudent course of action is usually to just ignore it.  People will not appreciate your efforts at accuracy unless they have actually requested your help.  Otherwise, people seldom want to be corrected.

Some errors, of course, have their own historical significance, such as the sign that was foolishly and illegally corrected by the Grammar Nazis currently under discussion.  I could also mention the plays of William Shakespeare.  It would be perfectly possible to translate Shakespeare into correct, grammatical 21st century English.  That would be much easier to read.  But the poetry of the original would be diminished (although strictly speaking, a sufficiently talented translator might be able to produce a very poetic translation - but even then, we are used to Shakespeare, who is the most quoted writer in the English language).  Consequently, Shakespeare is usually read and performed as originally written.

Spider Robinson has suggested that the only way to escape the persistent conflicts of the human race which result from traditional hatred that exists between long-opposed groups who have, in many cases, thousands (or at least hundreds)of years of accumulated grievances which can never be forgotten or forgiven, is to eradicate all historical records and start over, teaching a new generation nothing about actual human history or about the various ethnic or historical groups to which they belong, but instead presenting a sanitized version of reality in which all people accept each other with perfect equality as members of the human race, and always have, from the earliest existence of the species; such an illusion could become self-fulfilling.  (This also requires that there is at most one religion that anyone ever hears about, although no religion at all would work quite well.)  

Similarly, if we really wanted a world in which English is used correctly, we would have to wipe out the accumulated centuries of misused or eccentric English, all the ungrammatical musical recordings ("I can't get no satisfaction!") and plays, novels, poems, advertisements, etc., and create an artificial culture in which everything, including all public utterances, all recordings or publications or broadcasts or movies or signs, contain only grammatically correct English.  (I do not envision that all the old ungrammatical works simply disappear, rather, they would just be revised as needed.)  We could then create an environment in which grammatical error would always seem to be unacceptable to pretty much everybody.  But of course, this scheme would be extremely difficult to implement, and goes beyond even what the normal Grammar Nazi would advocate (although it could be conveniently combined with Spider Robinson's scheme to alleviate conflict between traditionally opposed political or religious factions).  I am sure it will never actually be done.  So, grammatical error is pretty much an unavoidable imperfection of existence.  And certainly, there are worse problems for us to worry about.  But I can still dream.

In spoken English, I simply cannot listen to people who insist on using "actually" every other world.  Usuaully you encounter this when somebody is recounting factual information.  I've had more than a few tour guides who've suffered from this affliction.

A ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Throw them all in jail!! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.