May 03, 2006

I've discovered a brilliant lunacy in the regulations that govern non-profit societies in Alberta:

10(1) The name of a society may contain only the following:
(a) letters of the alphabet of the English language;
(b) Arabic numerals;
(c) the following punctuation or other marks:
(i) !
(ii) “
(iii) #
(iv) $
(v) %
(vi) &
(vii) ‘
(viii) ( )
(ix) *
(x) +
(xi) ,
(xii) .
(xiii) -
(xiv) /
(xv) :
(xvi) ;
(xvii) >
(xviii) \

(xxii) Ç
(xxiii) ?
(xxiv) @

Each punctuation mark has its own sub-section! Brilliant. And I love how it takes five letters and two punctuation marks to point out that a name can indeed contain a question mark [(xxiii) ? ]. But don't interpret this expansive attitude toward punctuation too liberally.
(3) No society may have a name that consists primarily of a combination of punctuation marks or other marks.

Also no name may contain
(b) a number or word that might lead to the inference that the name is a number name, unless the name is a number name.
Is a frustrated poet drafting regulations for the Alberta legislature? I like to think so.

1 comment:

Jill said...

Hehehe