The city defines a dog as any living entity with four legs and a tail. So raccoons, bears, mountain lions, mice, these are all just different sizes of dog.
Quote marks used to be used for "emphasis", and some older people still use them that way. I had an aunt who would use quotes like this on signs at her fruit stand.
It's true in a sense that you can find examples of big companies and chains using them in such a way, even in national advertising and on products.
It was never part of any written standards to be used that way. But this situation counts more as communicating than language, and communication is whatever the people want it to be.
I think it comes down to people in any of the situations to make these decisions were never academics.
I’ve heard this before but I’m not entirely sure. Is it possible some old people just didn’t learn to write properly? Like when they used to write emails in all caps?
Honestly "Restroom" makes sense with quotation marks because it seems like a misleading polite euphemism to begin with. You aren't going to the excretion room to rest.
I'm okay with the "clunk" quotes, as they are most likely actually quoting others.
They more than made up for it with the... ominous... ellipses....
And the two exclamation marks after HARM YOU.
The clunk is quoting the sound, so it's ok technically.
Not enough for me to trust the sign, though