Disclosure: I'm a former English teacher. (Feel free to scour the rest of this post for errors. You know you want to.) I'm not usually a jerk about grammar and spelling. I don't correct friends' grammar in public unless I know them really well and they have master's degrees or doctorates.
But while I shopping recently for a mattress, not one of four salesmen told me to "lie down on the mattress."
"Lay down on it," they all said. I didn't correct them. That's rude, but the teacher in me couldn't concentrate on coils, firmness and sleep numbers. I just wanted to pull together the mattress staff and teach a mini lesson on the difference between lie and lay.
Then I wondered if some sales people deliberately use bad grammar since, ahem, most customers probably don't know the difference either. Even most of my former students probably can't remember the difference, regretfully. The only reason the lesson has stuck with me is because I taught it 50 times or so in my seven years of teaching.
Call me a grammar geek, but I'm telling you, mattress sales person, if you want to sell me a mattress, tell me to "lie on the bed and try it out." Then let's talk price.
