This is one I see a lot, actually. I always wonder to myself, “I wonder what alarmed it? And how can I help calm it down?”
A quick search seems to indicate that I’ve never bothered to photograph any of the times I’ve seen this and had my little internal conversation. So thanks much to Lisa R. for sending this one in.
It’s an especially lovely specimen because of the BONUS poor construction that gives us “Do not pass unless: to carriers of a ‘fob’.”
Which: no.
Eric A. found this sticker in his lab. That’s right, his lab, where dangerous things occur… things like WEAR-EYE and BODY PROTECTION. Also FACE.
You want to be very, very careful in a place like this, Eric. Stay safe.
Reporter #1 was playing my game of trying to explain away the horror on some signage. Surely there must be an excuse. Right? RIGHT?
I was ready to make the case for this being right because it COULD be saying that “panini is italian for sandwich”… except for the pesky quotes… and the fact that they apostrophized it in the rest of the text as well.
You can’t make them drink, Reporter #1. You just have to let them figure it out.
Also, the capitalization annoys me!
For those of you not living in Atlanta: the Sundial is a restaurant at the very top of the Westin hotel. It revolves. It isn’t one of Atlanta’s cheapest dining establishments. So Rayanne isn’t wrong to exclaim
…when you charge $6 for an elevator ride, shouldn’t you be able to pay for a copy editor?
It’s worth noting that Rayanne found this and sent it to me quite a while ago, and the error is still quite live on their website. Noice!
There’s an app for everything. Seriously. Don’t try to prove me wrong by searching for something disgusting or ludicrous, because I promise there will be an app, and then you will despair of humanity.
In addition to a lot of crazy apps, there are a lot of consumers with unfortunately low standards. In fact, in the Apple App Store, Reporter #1 found
…25,930 people who care more about what their dreams mean than about the finer points of grammar.
DON’T CLICK, Reporter #1! Run away!
Your thought for today: sometimes it’s possible to spell a word totally correctly and still be very, very wrong.
Hanna B. shows us how.
Apparently this is a very common error, but it cracks me up. Maybe I notice it because as a mathematician I actually use “complement” as in “thing that completes” fairly frequently?
All I know is, I was really hoping there’d be someone standing by the table, saying, “You look lovely today!” to people who pass by.
I was disappointed.
I am extremely disappointed right along with you, Hanna.
It cracks me up how many of the pictures on this site were clearly captured in cars. I just hope they’re not moving cars, peeps.
So this beautiful photo comes from GrammarTroika Sister #2, Shannon. She was worried that the photo wouldn’t clearly show the half-use of quotation marks. Which leads us to an eternal question: what’s worse, random incorrect use of quotation marks, or half incorrect use? We’ve got one of the former and two of the latter issues here…
Reporter #1 did the circling here, and she’s absolutely right. I don’t care if you can find the word “crockpotting” in your dictionary or not, it still is obviously going to need two of the letter t. It’s not even completely out of left field! One pots a plant, and that’s plant potting.
So there’s that. But Reporter #1 says the bad spelling “litters the site.” She’s highlighted some more for us.
I don’t know if Reporter #1 missed it or was just too tired to continue weilding her, ahem, blue pen, but there’s a little abused apostrophe in “photo’s” up there too!
Colleen submits this on behalf of Diane.
Diane spotted this gem in The Reporter, the newspaper for the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.
I’ve been to the Netherlands. Even if you’re going to go with “Holland” instead, they deserve better than a misspelling and a missed comma!
Katie says she noticed this sign, then went back and bought a cup of coffee just to get a picture of it. That’s dedication, peeps.
Katie was especially confused by the “understand our willing.” Because yeah.
I hope that coffee was good, Katie!