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I thought we’d take a break from the most dangerous and worst-paying type job posts and delve into something that has followed me around my office career like the boogieman on an unlit street in the dark of winter (okay, a little poetic hyperbole folks, but still…): the dreaded typo.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve proofed and re-proofed memos, letters and emails to my higher-ups trying to smoke out a there for a their, or a your for a you’re, a where for a wear, a four for, um, a for.
Interestingly, have you ever noticed how communiqués from superiors, on the other hand, especially presidents and senior vice-presidents, show no sign of proofing? Like typos don’t matter when the memo is being sent down from above? What’s with that? Why the double-standards? They expect you to be on your typing game, but they’re free to type with their feet if they want.
Anyone want to comment about that funny (not) fact?
In other typo news, did anyone catch the humorous NASA misprint a couple months ago when the shuttle Endeavour (named after HM Bark Endeavour, the ship commanded by 18th century explorer James Cook, if you’re wondering why the British spelling) was rolled out with a banner that read “Go Endeavor!”? Okay, an easy typo because it’s not the way we are used to spelling the word. NASA’s sign-dept. quickly ran out with a reprinted version, as you see in the photos.
Lastly: ethnic restaurants are an excellent place to unearth hilarious typos of all shapes and sizes. When I was in Greece almost every menu feature grilled lamp (the old inverted b/p typo common in Russian, too. I think it has to do with the Cyrillic alphapet…).
Here’s a photo I took with my cell phone today at this yummy Indian joint up on Melrose. Looks like someone needs to buy a vowel, twice! What’s the funniest typo you’ve ever scene?[BTW: how many typos can you find in this post? There are several, if you was paying attention.]
Comments (45)
Comment
I’m a freelance copyeditor, so typos on signs and menus make me positively CRAZY. That being said, I do grin every time I look at our local Mexican take-out menu, which offers chicken in “mold” sauce (should be mole).
posted by Karen on 9-13-2007 at 6:15 am
I received an email from an office co-worker…..”I’m just a prawn on the chessboard of life.”
posted by Jane on 9-13-2007 at 6:24 am
… to smoke out … a boogieman for a bogeyman?
(Nothing wrong with Boogie, is there?)
:D
posted by scriveyn on 9-13-2007 at 6:43 am
Not necessarily a typo, but funny none the less….
Shortly after my wife and I started dating, I was discussing possible movie rentals with her mother which we could all watch together that night. I suggested she rent “Little Shop of Horrors” as she liked musicals and it was the latest release. She seemed a little hesitant and unsure, but wrote it down anyway and went to get her purse. I looked at her list and saw she’d written “Little Shop of Whores”… Still makes me laugh.
posted by Bill on 9-13-2007 at 6:44 am
At the community college where my wife used to work the secretary of the campus safety department was asked to prepare guidelines on what to do in the event of a catastrophe. In her campus-wide e-mail she advised, in the event of an emergency, that students and faculty safely “ejaculate” the building. Obviously there are some things that spell check will not catch.
posted by Rick on 9-13-2007 at 6:53 am
When I landed an internship with a local newspaper in college, one of my first assignments was the ‘Police Blotter.’ Basically, I had to go to the jail with my notepad and copy down the names of everyone arrested and their charges. I still don’t know exactly how it happened, but despite my careful self-proofreading my article ran the next day with one gentleman listed as charged with ‘wonton assault.’ My editor bought me Chinese carryout for lunch that day, and it became a running joke for the rest of the summer.
Everyone on Facebook should check out the group “I judge you when you use poor grammar.” It has a photo gallery of all sorts of public displays of lunacy!
www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2209553478
posted by Roger on 9-13-2007 at 6:58 am
I feel like every Asia take-out menu has many “shirmp” dishes…
I also had a vendor once that I was calling out for forgetting something at a meeting. Her email response let me know that she thought the meeting went fine anyway, and so it was a “mute” point.
It’s like Joey from friends with his “moo” point. Ha.
posted by Sue on 9-13-2007 at 7:04 am
At a local Columbian resturant menu: Stuffed Boy (its supposed to be veal). Some things just don’t directly translate I guess.
posted by Amy on 9-13-2007 at 7:11 am
I once signed a letter Executive Director’s Assailant (instead of assistant) becuse I was not paying attention to the spell check. My boss saw the letter and would not stop making fun of me. Got to love spell check.
posted by Diana on 9-13-2007 at 7:12 am
As a customer service professional I often apologize for “any inconvenience.” Careless and quick typing can result in misspelling. Inattentiveness to Outlook’s spell-checker results in errors. Once, and only once, I apologized for “any incontinence.”
Of course, most of my errors appear when I’m trying to make an intelligent/funny comment on some blog post.
posted by Adam on 9-13-2007 at 7:12 am
Our project was running a little behind schedule and our client was worried that we would “waist” another day.
I was tempted to reply that she wouldn’t have to “weight” much longer, but I don’t think she would have gotten it.
posted by Joe on 9-13-2007 at 7:17 am
When I moved into the house I live in now, there was a business closing down at the end of the street that advertised a
“Going out of bussness sale,”
which entertained me for its phonetic spelling. Also there’s a local business that features “Stand-Up Taninnig!”
posted by Winston on 9-13-2007 at 7:24 am
I am a paralegal by trade and I know exactly what is meant by the “higher ups” and their memos. It drives me insane! I constantly find myself reading something and finding what is wrong with it. What really gets me is when my daughter will bring something home from school that is full of typos and grammitical errors. When I point them out, my daughter says, do you have to do that? YES, I do. If I can spell, then everyone should be able to spell! Especially the people that I entrust to educate you!
posted by Carmen on 9-13-2007 at 8:12 am
I love those menu typos.
Who doesn’t love stir-fried crap or Bible tripe? Seriously, these are real.
posted by Nick on 9-13-2007 at 8:24 am
I am a university student taking a theatre history course. My course outline informs me we will be studying the theatre styles of a world “rocked by war.” I suppose that could work. War might cause someone to rock, either sitting in the corner in fear or to hold some kind of concert. It could have been “wracked by war,” which my immediate neighbor and myself seemed to think was the appropriate term. The professor didn’t even catch the error while reading it to the class.
posted by Geoffrey on 9-13-2007 at 8:31 am
I work in the juvenile justice system and deal with COMPLAINANTS who come in to lodge COMPLAINTS alleging delinquent conduct(the reason for capitalization will soon become apparent). One day we received a memo from the supervisor saying that, after swearing in the person, we should then be sure to “stamping the complainant on the bottom with the ‘FILED IN OFFICE’ stamp”. Thinking that the error was obvious, I sent the supervisor a note saying “They wont like that!”. Instead of understaning it however, the supervisor sent me a curt note saying that it really wasn’t any of their business what we did after they had submitted the paperwork.
posted by Harold Dickinson on 9-13-2007 at 8:36 am
About 20 miles from me, there’s a farm stand near the coast that sells “Peaches, Apples and Plumbs.” Every sign there has plumbs instead of plums. Maybe a plumber made the signs?
posted by Jenny on 9-13-2007 at 9:10 am
When “higher-ups” get their “higher-up” titles, they should be forced not only to pass a spelling test, but a grammar test, as well. It’s embarrassing.
I’ve got a higher-up that insists on ending every e-mail with “Thanx.” What are we—in high school? The part that disturbs me most is that he either ignores spell-check in Outlook every time, or he has actually added this to his “allowed” words.
posted by bre on 9-13-2007 at 9:48 am
Although it has more to do with poor translations than with typos, the Chinese government is working to standardize English translations of menu items before the 2008 Olympics. If successful, you won’t have the opportunity to eat “steamed crap” or “virgin chicken”. Check out the link below for the full story.
www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2007/08/31/virgin_chicken_off_the_menu_in_beijing/
posted by BeckyJ on 9-13-2007 at 9:56 am
The deli at the grocery store by my former office advertised “fried orka” and “brocoilli” as available side dishes. For five years, I always requested “fried orka please” and they never changed the sign (or presented me with Shamu on a shingle).
posted by Dave on 9-13-2007 at 10:08 am
An employee newsletter I used to work on once featured our employee of the month, a guy in the public works department. An unfortunate (but humorous) lack of an “L” called him a “one man pubic works inspection team.”
posted by Mac on 9-13-2007 at 10:21 am
I live in rural South Carolina, where we don’t have garbage pickups at our homes/curbs. We have to take our trash to a dump (called “Collection Site”).
There is a large sign on the gate that reads, “Illegal Dumping is Illegal”. Duh!
Department of Redundancy Department.
posted by doc on 9-13-2007 at 10:32 am
So, at that restaurant do you really get four Coors with the lunch special?
posted by Frank on 9-13-2007 at 11:58 am
My husband and I stopped in for dinner at a new chinese restaurant in our area. Their menu was great, and we found what we wanted and got it to go. When we got home, we perused their take-out menu, and found “Human Pork” listed. We’re hopeful that it was just a typo!
And our local indian restaurant lists “fresh chopped garlic bread topped garlic naan” and “sheesh kebab”. We always laugh at those. Sheesh!
posted by frogandpig on 9-13-2007 at 1:02 pm
On an art history syllabus, the professor wrote that “3 latte arrivals” would be considered an absence. On the first day, I was pretty proud to ask if the latte in my hand could be forgiven since it was the first day of class and I was unaware of the rule.
posted by Kate on 9-13-2007 at 1:33 pm
This is really sad: there is a park near my house. One of the park entrances allows you to hike down to the park, and the way can be very steep. We get all sorts of weather, so the city put up a sign to warn people to watch their footing on the trail. It honestly says, “Warning: trail can be slippery in wet weather. Be careful of mud and leafs”.
“Leafs”? Groan!
posted by Larissa on 9-13-2007 at 2:07 pm
When I was at college in Statesboro, Georgia many years ago there was a Chinese restaurant located downtown. I still have the business card from it. On the card for the location of the establishment it said…
“Cross From Post Office”
That has always tickled me.
posted by Joseph Pinaud on 9-13-2007 at 2:16 pm
I have a copy of a spellig quiz I took in second grade where I spelled “shirt” without the “r.” The teacher wrote “Robert did NOT learn this word from his teacher me.” Well, mom and dad had to sing it and so dad added a note “Robert DID learn this word from his dad me and he Robert him will probably learn more words vocabulary in the future time.”
I loved having my dad stick up for me.
posted by Robert on 9-13-2007 at 2:58 pm
The issue about “higher-ups” is especially annoying when your boss (principal) was a teacher for 20-30 years and should know proper spelling and grammar, but sends e-mails and newsletters with so many typos you can barely read it. She even puts the wrong names for people!
posted by S on 9-13-2007 at 3:06 pm
These are great,
i was driving through town and saw some highschool kids changing the sign outside their school,
the front said “Homecoming Dance Tonite”
i chuckled and then drove past and looked on the opposite side of the sign and no joke “Spelling Bee Sat”
I can assume that none of these kids were in the spelling bee!!
posted by Lindsey on 9-13-2007 at 3:13 pm
There used to be a restaurant in my home town that advertised (painted on the window) “Ho-made pies.” Also, their business card listed them as “An alternative to good eating.” Which may actually not be a typo, since most doctors would probably agree that chicken fried steak at every meal is not “good eating.”
posted by Evan on 9-13-2007 at 3:33 pm
I thought that the bad grammar from the higher-ups only happened at my company! It’s good to know it’s not just us.
My favorite (if you could call it that…) was from our Marketing Communications director. Perhaps I’m mistaken, but I would expect this group to have good… well… communication skills, written or otherwise. In telling me how to use our company’s trademark, she wrote “XX(R) is a trademakr of XX Industires, Inc.” I’m just assuming she didn’t want me to use her exact text.
Unfortunately, this is far from the only example I have - it’s just my favorite.
posted by Sydnie on 9-13-2007 at 5:10 pm
I used to teach English to college sophomores and saved a few gems from student essays: “Poland was dismembered, peace by peace.” “Almost all students feel pier pressure.” And, “The movie was immoral becaue it contained drug attics and prostidudes.”
posted by Chas12 on 9-13-2007 at 5:32 pm
I love finding misused quotation marks on signs. My favorite was a car wash in Chicago that since repainted. They used to offer a police “officer” discount and Thursday was “ladies” day.
posted by audrey on 9-13-2007 at 6:00 pm
if you like these sort of things, you should check out www.engrish.com
lots of fun there.
also, one of our favourite thai restaurant has on their menu “soft shelled crap” (instead of soft shelled crab). always puts a smile on our face :-)
posted by jay salt on 9-13-2007 at 6:13 pm
My colleagues and I love to play “find-the-mistake” in our bosses email. There is always at least one, and we find it hilarious.
posted by Sara Rosehill on 9-13-2007 at 6:47 pm
At the restaraunt I used to work at, our menu once hat not one, but TWO typos in them. One of our newer dishes was pork medallions, but it was misspelled as ‘medalions’. The servers and I would joke that we were serving ‘meda-lions’. The other typo was the same, but for a different dish.
posted by heather on 9-14-2007 at 12:29 am
I love funny typos.
My favourites are:
On a Beauty salon — HAIR LOST , TINNING
Chinese Restaurant— D’cious Chn Food
(The sign was small so abbreviations seemed like a good option)
posted by Lisa from Bim on 9-14-2007 at 11:20 am
Some years ago a friend who was a minister and who also sang in a gospel quartet was looking in a very old hymnal (early 20th century) for old hymns which they could use in their programs. He ran across one entitled “There’s crap on the door”, a hymn for use at funerals. Obviously, the word was supposed to be “crepe” which the proofreader mistyped as “crap” and it not only appeared in the title, but every stanza ended with the phrase, “There’s crap on the door”!
posted by James on 9-15-2007 at 11:11 am
When I was in college, a local Wendys was apparently looking for people to work the late night shift. Their sign outside read, “now hiring losers”. Did they have to be so hard on their prospective employees?
posted by paul on 9-15-2007 at 7:23 pm
This summer, a local high school was advertising an upcoming reunion on their electronic marquee. Except they called it a “re-union.” I laughed every time I saw that.
posted by Janel on 9-15-2007 at 11:15 pm
I take photos of all the bad English I see on a daily basis, it’s usually pretty funny stuff. (I live in China) The other day at work someone (not a native English speaker) put a sign up sheet in the office for something, and it said, “Formal dress: Men must be tied up.” There’s a store in town that’s called “Unsightly and Peculiar.” They sell clothes. I’ve seen one at the airport in Paris: “Retarded Planes.” And, my favorite is what’s written on my package of cough drops: “Coursing wind and searing heat, resolving toxin and disinhibiting throat, transforming turbidity with aroma.”
I think that China has quite a ways to go before they get all of their signs fixed…. But they will let you tell them what’s wrong with the English on the Olympics website pages.
posted by greenstrawberries on 9-27-2007 at 3:52 am
I’m just a kid, but I love grammar. I point out mistakes on my teachers’ handouts and chalkboards all the time. you wouldn’t believe the mistakes they make…and with Master’s Degrees too…
Also, my two best friends are awful spellers: “where= were”, “which= witch, wich”…etc. It annoys me…
posted by Mal on 10-22-2007 at 6:47 pm
Working in the fast paced emergency services environment, we are quick to type calls and even quicker to push them out for police and ambulances. More times than I can count, second is abbreviated “sec” and since the x key is so close to the c key, another more naughty word gets typed into a call. This becomes a problem when transcripts are subpoenaed for court. >:-)
posted by a 911 operator on 12-3-2007 at 9:33 pm
One of my favorites on a sign telling you to leave the plants alone:
Violators will be persecuted.
posted by Joanna on 1-17-2008 at 3:16 pm