Today's Post Is Brought To You By The Letter N

Received this great photo all the way from Australia, from Eden. She says the owner of the shop saw her taking the picture, came out, looked at the sign, and then went back inside. The sign remained for another week. Guess it took him that long to figure out what was wrong.

Or maybe it's a cafe on the waterfront, and he meant it was for boats - as in mooring? Either way he's got it wrong.

One letter. There's only 26 of them but each one is so important. Never underestimate the power of a single letter.

Thanks Eden! Now I can say the blog has gone international :)

Your Does Not Equal You're!

There is plenty missing from so many websites these days. Proper grammar, correct spelling, etc. Oh sure, you have cutting edge eye catching killer graphics, and a (possibly) very coveted domain name. But if you hire someone with poor language skills (skillz?) to manage your website, it will usually show. And not in a good way.

You're = you are. The apostrophe stands for the missing letter (a, for those of you learning this for the first time and reading this with a puzzled expression).

Your = the possessive form of you. As in 'your website sucks'. Use it when you want to show ownership. Which you may not want to do if it's riddled with errors.

I will state again that I was not an English major, nor do I proclaim to know all the rules and such that apply to the language. So I may have gotten the definition of 'your' a bit wrong. However I stand by it as it will make sense to laymen such as myself!

I'll Have The Torttia With Chedder Chesse

This bit of a menu mess (from a small cafe in Oklahoma) proves that just because you can't spell doesn't mean that you can't cook. The food was incredibly good - certainly not fancy or earth shattering, but just plain good. And reasonably priced.

But the menu - oy vey what a mess! Fortunately, despite the mess, we were still able to choose our favorites and enjoy a wonderful family lunch.

How many errors can you find? No, really - I want to know because there are too many for me to keep track of.

If anyone can figure out what 613.990R11.75 is supposed to be, let me know. Either the beignets (which, by the way, is spelled correctly - go figure!) are a tad overpriced, or they've included the bar code for those who like to think in black and white.

Earthquake Clatter Nerves - 7.1 On Rector Scale!

A dilemma. Publicize the URL of this horrendous news site full of unbelievable writing and therefore giving it a boost in traffic (and hence, popularity and PR and success), or show you just one tiny example of the writing to enjoy, slack-jawed, as I did this morning.

Hmmmm.

Well, seeing as this blog has three readers on a good day, the URL shall be released. Promise not to tell the world, though. I don't want to promote their ineptness.

WARNING: I will not vouch for this site! It may be harmful to your computer. Proceed at your own risk - and possibly risk any hope you may have had for mankind for the remainder of your lifes (haha - little inside humor there).

So, for the brave - I give you: News we can do without!

Please, someone, tell me that the site isn't supposed to be real, that it's a parody, or satire, or something mocking the english language! I await your distinguished reply. Wishing you good fortune and best days ahead.

This sterling example of mistranslation was originally spotted on It's Your Damned Language! - another great grammar blog.

How Do You Spend Your Lifes?

Kristilyn was shopping in Big Lots today (who doesn't love Big Lots?!) and noticed this brilliant piece of artwork. She didn't say how much it was. Big Lots usually stocks products that might have been oversupplied, or items that don't sell in the original stores. Sometimes (if you like treasure hunts), you can find brilliant buys on anything from children's toys to air filters.

I wonder why this beautifully framed, thought provoking, beacon for our moral compass ended up there? Any ideas?

I hope she bought one for me!

Would You Buy This?

Time out.

We interrupt this blog to bring you the second most evil problem corrupting the world (bad grammar and lack of correct spelling being the first).

Stupid products for lazy people! This is getting out of hand. Case in point - first we had cookie dough in a tube. OK, that's understandable - not enough time to buy and mix up the ingredients (and it is oh so good straight from the tube). Then came the cookies almost formed, just break them up, place them on a cookie sheet, and bake. Because it's just too time consuming to slice the dough? Well, that's far too much work for me - please provide me with the cookies already on the cookie sheet so I can skip that step. And it was so. Wait! I don't even want to have to bake them! Oops - we've come full circle - they're in aisle 3.

In celebration of all things stupid and marketed to the masses who buy them, I bring you:

Seriously - cupcake icing? Since when did they require a specialized formula? Is there really a market for this? When I think of all those rebellious bakers who would dare to use cake icing on their cupcakes . . [shivvers] . . chills me to the bone.

And by the way, if they're making or icing cupcakes in that photo, why are their hands in a bowl? No step I can remember from cupcake baking involves hands in a bowl.

Nostalgic Carckers

This one is near and dear to my heart because it evokes special memories of vacations past (passed? - not sure on that one). We used to go on our vacation with friends, and before we'd leave, my friend and I would create a grocery list. Each year, we'd go over the list and adjust accordingly, as kids tastes changed and our own fondness for "Mom Chocolate" grew. So one year, we're going over the list, and discover that it had carckers as an item to purchase. (Need I explain that the planning sessions were usually accompanied by some wine and several fits of laughter.) Laughing over the small mistake, we left it as carckers and it stayed that way for years to come, evoking giggles each time we planned for the upcoming vacation.

Guess you had to be there. Anyway, we had fun with it, right Karen?

Thanks to Chris - who seems to be inundated with typos/errors wherever she roams!