James here. With Caitlin’s absence we are running out of Kleenex here in the office. We miss you :( BUT, we must go on! We have several new projects coming in and lots of updates to make for past clients. We are going to start making more posts on this blog about the work we’re doing here at Pica Design to keep you all in-the-know ;)

All words have a meaning, but good ones come with more than one,
When we picked the Pica name we took on quite a sum.
The many things a Pica is may be more than you think
So we thought we’d share with you all these handy links

Pica means a family of magpies, and a publisher of old
Red-wine grapes that wind and grow in the region of Garonne
There’s a city found in Chile, a pianist named Joe,
and the pathway to your brain through which the blood does flow
The urge to eat things not quite food goes by Pica too
But we hope you stick to food, good health it brings to you!

There are Institutes of Art in Portland and in Perth
And the heat shield on a spaceship so very far from Earth,
If you should twist and turn the ‘c’ into a ‘k’
And head into the mountains, way up above the fray
You may find a cousin to the rabbit, with ears just like a mouse
Who live in rocky hillsides, and whistle when they’re roused

But what we meant, in any case, was the measurement of space
Six picas in an inch to grant us design grace.

Micah Ellis

For the past few years I have had the benefit of witnessing countless children enjoying the winged tricycle out my office window. Every summer the hordes of tourists descend on Belfast, Maine. Every child that sees this tricycle has to sit on it and ring the bell. Usually this is a 10-15 minute event. I hear the wonderful sounds of laughter and screaming children as they take turns trying to push the pedals and make those wings go up and down, up and down. I can think of nothing better to brighten up a rainy summer than happy children.

But on this particular day I looked out my window only to see a co-worker screaming with delight. In this instance a picture really is worth a thousand words.

Don’t forget to stop in Belfast on your way up the Maine coast and check out all the bike installations throughout town.

a) could of, would of, should of

OR

b) could have, would have, should have

If you chose b: could have, would have, should have, you are correct. 

Why is that?

It’s something called the “third conditional”, which is a verb form used to communicate an event in the past that didn’t happen, such as: “If I hadn’t already eaten so many vegetables, I would have finished the burrito.”

It seems that there is some confusion surrounding this. The contraction of the two words ‘could have’ (could’ve) sounds a lot like ‘could of’. But, ‘could of’ is not correct English. It doesn’t mean anything (unless it’s in some other sentence construction, such as: “I could, of course, finish the burrito tonight.”)

Anyway, it’s all the fault of V8 juice.

Remember the saying: “I could have had a V8′? It all started there. Willy nilly, they threw out a saying, and even though they said, “could’ve”, it sounded a lot like “could of” and the rest is history.

By the way, did you know that V8 Vegetable Juice was invented by W.G. Peacock of Evanston, IL,  in 1933? Campbell Soup Company acquired the V8 brand and secret recipe in 1948. They have been making V8 beverages ever since.