Grammar Moses: Search for bad signs leaves me pleasantly unfulfilled

When last we communicated, I promised roadside photos from my vacation.

I tried. I really tried. But no dice.

In the 10 days I spent in Colorado, I did not espy a single misspelled road sign, business sign or menu board. Even what little graffiti I found was beautifully composed.

This in the state that relishes its recreational marijuana.

Normally, ill-conceived signs leap out at me almost as violently as they attack TV reporters during hurricanes.

After a couple of fruitless days, I spent more time trying to find goofy signs than I did looking at the scenery.

Little did I know that Colorado has been ranked by the personal finance website Wallet Hub as the third-most educated state in the nation - behind Massachusetts and (who would have guessed it?) Maryland.

Had I been serious about my quest for misbegotten signage, I should have asked the pilot to divert our flight to West Virginia or Mississippi.

If you were wondering, Illinois ranked 16th.

I did, however, manage to find one misspelling to salve your disappointment.

The attached photo illustrates why crafty furniture painters should consult a dictionary - or at least proofread their work.

This would have been a simple fix. If I'd had a black Sharpie, I might have edited it myself.

Populous/populace

Steve Bense of Wheaton was reading a story from an out-of-state newspaper about the August eclipse when he stumbled on a homophone problem.

"A word in the opening sentence struck me as odd. I thought it should be 'populace,' not 'populous,' and the writer guessed at the spelling. I had never heard or read the word 'populous' before," Steve wrote.

Having read the story, I can tell you the writer meant to use a noun and used an adjective instead.

"Populace" is a collective noun characterizing the residents of an area. "Populous" is an adjective meaning densely populated.

So, if you wanted to challenge your reader, you might write Chicago is a populous city whose populace comes from a variety of cultures.

Try and do it right

Betty Risley of Wauconda asked me for a ruling on "try to" versus "try and."

"I assume the first is a little more tentative than the second one," she wrote. "However, I see both of them used in the same way rather indiscriminately."

This is one of those things that sets my teeth on edge, Betty.

"Try to" is the correct usage.

If you "try to" do something, you make an effort with the hope of achieving a specific result.

If you "try and" do something, you both make an attempt and attain the result. To my way of thinking, you're describing the whole process rather than describing the effort.

I think we can all agree that when one uses the "try and" construction, the intent is to describe only the effort.

Stick with "try to."

Write carefully!

• Jim Baumann is vice president/managing editor of the Daily Herald. Write him at jbaumann@dailyherald.com. Put Grammar Moses in the subject line. You also can friend or follow Jim at facebook.com/baumannjim.