Presented without comment.

When you see it, you will...still be confused.

(Thanks to loyal reader and internet buddy MM for the pic!)

I love you, weekend.

Happy Weekend! Yay! We made it! It was a crazy week, huh? Last night, I made my first visit to Dodger Stadium, where I had excellent seats and free food, all thanks to my friend CG, who won tickets at work. An awesome way to kick off the weekend. And I have plans to see Magic Mike on Saturday, which will be a MAGICAL time indeed.

Also, I read a fantastic book this week. It's been out a while, but I finally got around to giving it a read. It's called Divergent, by Veronica Roth. It's the first in a series, and I'm really looking forward to the next book! If you love dystopian-future YA, then this is the book for you.

As always, please keep an eye out this weekend for spelling and grammatical errors out in the world. If you see something, say something. You'll be doing your part to help humanity!

Have a great weekend, y'all, and be sure to stop back by a little later for today's Presented without comment. I think you'll enjoy it.

COOKIE!

More food! Yay! This post isn't from a menu. It's an email advertising some cookies. I feel like that's sort of extra cruel. All these beautiful pictures of cookies, and none of them are edible! Where's that 3D printer when you need one? I think the worst part is that you have to order these cookies. You can't even run out to a store to buy them.

My friend JR forwarded this email to me and said this is one of her biggest pet peeves. I can totally understand. As she indicated, you don't mess with dessert.

Photo by JR

This is a tough one to see, so let me see if I can doctor it up a little.

Behold my mad skillz.

The word is, of course, marshmAllow. I clicked through to the website to see if it was there, too, and it wasn't. Just on the email blast. Which I feel is bad enough. I just can't take a business seriously if they don't respect their own products enough to make sure they're correct in advertising.

Also, I admit, I have my doubts about ice cream flavored cookies. That just doesn't sound awesome to me. The problem may be that I'm a devoted chocolate person, and so all these fruity flavors are just nonsense and gibberish to me. Why eat anything that isn't chocolate? Why waste your time? Silly.

(Thanks, JR!)

I want to go to there.

Good morning!

It's not really a secret that this blog could be run on food-related submissions alone. I wish I could figure out why that is. Why independent restaurant proprietors are SO reluctant to have anyone proofread their menus before having them printed. Surely it's the same mindset that allows them to create such hideous websites. Pretty much every person on Earth agrees that websites with all that extraneous music and business are EXTREMELY irritating, except for those who build restaurant websites. And the separate PDF menus? What is up with that? No one wants to have to save a menu to their computer every single time! Just html that bad boy up! (note: I have no idea how to create a website. Maybe this is hard. Who knows?)

Regardless, food-related errors. They turn up in all kinds of places. I wish I could post for y'all all the submissions I currently have along this theme, but, well, that would force this blog to end sometime next Tuesday, and that would be sad. So, I'll just give you a couple today, to whet your appetite. (See what I did there?)

First up is this questionable error in a menu, submitted by my friend IU.

Photo by IU

IU tells me that shadow finger pointing right to the error is just a coincidence. This is one I've had my doubts about in the past. Is chilli a regional spelling? I kind of lean towards no, since google doesn't come up with it at all when I look for it, but google doesn't know everything. (GASP!) But maybe it is. If you know, please tell me! I'm very curious. IU spent some time in South America, and she's the one that sent this in, so I'm going to just believe her for now.

She also said that when she was taking this picture, no one around her asked why. No one. They just saw her taking a picture of the menu, and let it happen. Awesome.

(Thanks, IU!)

Who?

This submission is also VERY earnest. It can be difficult to find a way to commemorate someone or something. You want to strike the right note without pushing too hard, or not taking it seriously enough. I come down in favor of the luminaria displays. (Note: googling tells me this word is not actually correct, and that the preferred term is farolito, which is a word I've never heard before. Interesting!) They are solemn, pensive, and respectful. You can see the words others have written about loved ones, and think about those you've known as well.

My friend MJ stumbled across this farolito on the Relay for Life walkway:

Photo by MJ

Well, ok. I mean, who doesn't want to honor those who've fought cancer? But, if you were a fan of the Beastie Boys, wouldn't you have spelled the group's name correctly? And additionally known that the GROUP didn't have cancer? And been aware of the correct title of the song? Conversely, if you were googling celebs with cancer, isn't it likely that the googlewebs would have spit out Adam Yauch, of the Beastie Boys, allowing you to simply COPY IT DOWN?

Look, I can't just come out and make fun of this individual. It's not cool. But I am confused, and at the same time, pleased with their efforts. My dad died of cancer. I'll take every drop of awareness we can get!

We will only give that one quotation mark this fleeting reference, and then call it a day.

(Thanks, MJ!)

But isn't he American?

Today on the blog we're going to look at a couple of spelling errors that are really quite adorable. As you well know, I have no interest in mocking individuals. We're here to make fun of the multiple gatekeepers who allow errors to pass, and not private citizens who just don't know any better. As a result, I'm not able to bring you the FB status where someone just used the word excepted instead of accepted. However, sometimes, private citizens charm me a bit too much with their earnestness, and, well, I have to share it with y'all.

So, today's first submission comes from loyal reader and internet buddy RP, who previously brought us the joy that was the Dali Lama. I'll just let RP explain this one:

Much of Calgary is a grid city: numbered avenues running east/west, numbered streets running north/south, in four different quadrants.  It wasn't always this way, though: there used to be a "Lincoln Ave" in the city's NW.  This was memorialized - or, at least, a memorialization was attempted - in concrete in the sidewalk.  (This particular sidewalk is at what is now the intersection of 7th Ave NW and 1st St NW)

Photo by RP

RP provided a link to the wikipedia article explaining this, which is really interesting, if you're at all a history geek like I am. He highlighted this bit:

"Sidewalks at intersections in areas outside the downtown core are often stamped with the name of the cross-street, especially in older districts. As this was once done by hand by municipal employees who were not always literate, some street names are misspelled or the letters reversed."

And that, my friends, is how we've arrived at Linclon Ave. I think this is just fascinating. They just wanted to remember what was once here! Not everyone has that sense of history. And so, Potentially Illiterate Calgary Municipal Employee, we salute you for trying. It was probably very scary to be expected to do this if you couldn't read, so good on you, sir. We know what you meant.

(Thanks, RP!)

Full Circle

I love it when worlds collide. When all the stories on a TV show intersect? Pure gold. When random friends that don't know each other attend the same wedding? Kismet! When I suggest that they go introduce themselves to each other because they'd totally get along? Well, that's just me being pushy. WHICH I HAVE NEVER BEEN. Ahem. So, the other day, when I was doing some research for a completely separate project, and stumbled across this gem, I was kind of absurdly happy.

Have We Talked about How I am Not a Fan of Excessive Caps, Except When I Do It?

Once again, I googled "Ybor City Musuem State Park" just to see if it's some sort of quirk. It is not. It is just wrong. MUSEUM. It's even how we pronounce it. This is clearly just a typo that's made its way onto the website, and is now tragically out there for the world to see.

I do kind of expect more of a museum. Is that wrong? Also, this museum didn't have an 800 number that I could find. That's weird, too, right? I just wanted More Info of the non-Events & Programs kind.

I can't wait to see what I find next! For both projects!

You had me at massage.

Today's first submission was a fun one to research. The internet has a LOT to say about these topics. I am not really into bashing anyone's path to health. Listen, if you're doing a thing that makes you feel better, then you should probably keep doing it, unless, y'know, it's actually REALLY bad for you.

But bad spelling can be harmful, too:

Photo by KG

So, yeah. It's ear candling, without the E. And the internet is Not Pleased with it at all. It goes so far as to say it's actually dangerous, on some websites. I also had to google iridology, which I've never heard of. This, it turns out, uses the patterns and characteristics of your iris to tell you what's going on inside of you. I feel like, unless you're one of the aliens on V, your irises don't have a lot to say about your innards. But what do I know? Besides that candling is spelled wrong. Oh, and that I wouldn't want any kind of counseling from people who can't spell candling. But y'know. Besides that.

(Thanks to loyal reader and internet buddy KG for the pic!)

Mom, Part Deux: The Mommening!

Does your mom send you clippings in the mail? Other moms totally do this, right? Little articles about people you grew up with, coupons, things like this? Or is this a small-town mom thing? I get a packet about once a month with tidbits for my perusal. Mostly, the articles these days are job hunting tips, but I still get some more random stuff that I can't always explain. Once, I got an article that Mom had intended for a friend of mine, but she hadn't indicated so anywhere. I did figure it out eventually, which made me proud. After all these years, I can interpret the inner workings of Mom's brain pretty well. Sometimes, Mom has a tough time hanging on to things. People's names, where she was going, her keys. That kind of thing. My brother and I have an ongoing joke about how the Mom action figure comes with a LOT of accessories. She's got a lot going on, is what I'm saying, and it's tough to keep track of it all. So, sometimes I get articles intended for my brother, and vice-versa. Long story long, there is often a REASON articles arrives. You might just have to think about it for a while in order to figure it out.

However, when this one came, I was completely stumped.

When your mom sends you articles, does she put the date on them? I tried to crop it out, but you can see the tail of the Y up there at the top. 

No one in my family has diabetes that I know of. I wracked my brain. Did we know someone that participated in the study? Was this article meant for another family member, and it just ended up in my packet? Was she saving it for herself for some reason? WHY? WHY DID I GET THIS ARTICLE?

In case you haven't found it yet, it's right there. IN THE FIRST LINE. OY. I am slow sometimes. Mom was just looking out for the blog! Thanks, Mom. I'll try to do better next time.

WARNING

And so another work week begins. Not cool, weekend, to just up and END like that. Not cool at all. What did y'all do this weekend? See any good movies? Hang out with friends? Catch up with family? I don't get to spend too much time with mine, since they live across the country from me, but I talk to my mom regularly, and even sent her the link to this blog, so all y'all better be on your best behavior! Mom doesn't tolerate much in the way of shenanigans. She's also where I get my, er, interest in spelling and good grammar. Checking these things is her profession, and let me tell you, she takes it pretty seriously. So seriously, in fact, that when I was in the 8th grade, I stopped letting her read my school papers, because she made me fix them until they were correct! What a nuisance. I was a teenager, and it was my job to be annoyed by everything my parents did, and man, was I ANNOYED. I didn't recover until college, when I realized I'd have to proof my papers myself. And then THAT was a nuisance. Me, y'all. I am difficult sometimes.

Now, Mom sees spelling errors on a daily basis, but because she's mostly working on internal documents for her company, she can't share. But every once in a while, she comes across something she can share, and so today I'm featuring Submissions from Mom. This first one is from a training video she had to watch:

It's sad how often people have to be reminded to keep themselves alive. 

Well, congratulations, warning sign, you are NOW spelled correctly. As Mom said in her email, "the joys of white-out extend even to very large, painted signs." I guess we all fight the good fight in our own way, huh?

Well played, Follow-Up Sign Fixer Person. Well played, indeed.

(Thanks, Mom!)

Presented without comment.

Photo by EA

(Thanks, EA, for letting me use your photo!)

We just met, and this is crazy...

Once again, another Friday has arrived! I don't know about y'all, but it's been quite a week for me. This weekend looks pretty good, though. I'm going to see War Horse on Sunday, with the cool horsey puppet! I never saw the movie, so I don't know the story at all. Also, I just started The Night Circus this week, and am really looking forward to finishing it. I hope you guys have a good weekend planned, too!

As a reminder, please send your spelling (and grammar) fails to me when you spot them out in the wild.  I am eternally grateful!

Again, have a good one, and check back in a little later for today's final post. See y'all on Monday!

More signs. (THEME ALERT)

As you well know, Facebook isn't just a place for funny signs. It's also a place to share your Very Interesting views on things. A soapbox, if you will. A Speaker's Corner, for when you can't get to London. I am guilty of this as well, though I do try to make sure it's clear that what I'm saying is my own opinion, and not something that I require everyone to agree with. I try. I don't alway succeed. And I am, for the most part, not terribly politically astute. I admit that freely. I am far too shallow, and truthfully more interested in what famous people are wearing on the red carpet.

However, I do try to read posts from people I know have me beat in that department. I want to learn, and understand what's going on. And sometimes, people even create handy little infographic signs that tell me what's what! Like this one, sent in by my friend DW:

Clearly, I need to get myself elected president. I'm totally qualified, obvs. 

Look, let's be real. No one will take you seriously if you spell simple words wrong and don't proofread your sign before foisting it on the internet. It's as simple as that. If your message is THAT important, it's worth taking an extra minute to read over, and make sure you don't have an errant letter in a two-letter word.

Remember megabit from last week? This is clearly where that H landed.

It's ludicrous to insist the internet be better, but a girl can dream, right?

(Thanks to DW for sending me this sign!)

Signs, signs, everywhere signs...

Remember how I was saying the other day that I love some of the stuff that goes around Facebook? It's still true. I am sometimes just blown away by how hilarious people are. My favorite one that I just reposted was a picture of a rat in a cage, with a sticky note on it that said "Despite all my rage...". That's hilarious, y'all. Sometimes, though, it seems like they're just kind of a hack job, right? I am not in love with this idea. Someone takes someone else's sign and then photoshops in their own HILARIOUS phrase, and then PMs their friends to repost the sign, to force it to go viral. To me, this is the internet equivalent of telling someone you're funny. If you ARE funny, people will just know. You won't have to tell them. Similarly, if your photoshopped sign is funny, then people will repost it, and you won't have to ask them to do so. I mean, some people were just sort of born to write those quippy little phrases, and, well, some should find other outlets.

Like, maybe, the creator of this sign, sent to me by my friend IU:

What is that in front of the sitting dude? Flowers? A salad? A FLOWER SALAD?

This is just a mess, right? I mean, of course, we are mainly focused on that wrong your. And an ellipsis has 3 periods. But also, it doesn't really make any sense, does it? It's clunky, which takes away from the joke. "Singing along to a song you don't really know...but when the chorus rolls around, you are going to OWN that shit." That's...better, I think. Maybe? I suspect that this is not really all that hilarious a sentiment to begin with.

So, let that be a lesson to you, Anonymous Facebook Card Photoshoppers. First, please run your HILARIOUS concept by others, to confirm its hilarity, and second, deploy your words and grammar properly. Until then, the only shit you'll own is the above-mentioned shit. Which is pretty shitty, indeed.

(apologies to all parties for the abuse of the word hilarious in this post, and thanks to IU for sending me this submission! It is a marvel.)

Summer TV, yay!

It's been at least a few days since I mentioned that I love TV, right? So, yeah. I love TV. Summers used to be a challenge, because all your favorite shows were gone, but then I figured out you could use summers to watch MORE shows you weren't watching before, and they were all new to you! That's genius. And then Fox ran Beverly Hills, 90210 during the summer, and all hell broke loose. Now, you can find tons of quality programming year-round! That's the way I like it. What are you watching? I'm just getting started on Bunheads, which started great but had a wonktastic second episode. I'm eagerly awaiting the return of White Collar, which I adore. True Blood? I haven't jumped back in yet, but I did like the previous seasons. Sort of. Last season was really silly, and I don't think that's necessary. I don't mind them deviating from the books. I mean, I read a lot of urban fantasy, and while I like the Sookie books, they aren't my favorite of the genre. I just don't think you have to go all whackadoo crazy just because vampires are involved.

I'm also watching Falling Skies. I enjoyed the last season, though I felt like it wasn't dramatic enough, in a way. Like there were no stakes. Did any of y'all watch Stargate SG-1? Remember how no one ever died? Even when someone died, they didn't really die? Yeah, I mean like that. Falling Skies seemed to lack an edge. I don't know how you'd do it, except to kill one of Noah Wyle's kids, but as I don't work on the show, that's not my problem. So, season 2 just premiered this past Sunday, and I liked it! Much more drama, lots of fight scenes, possible betrayal, and humans be trippin' because of the scary aliens.

Anyway, I watched the premiere, and then the credits rolled. I just happened to look up, and was greeted with this:

Oh, dear.

I googled to see if this was in fact the title of the episode. As in "The world IS apart." I don't think that's it. I think it's just wrong. And so here it is. The second episode's title could have used a question mark at the end of it, so I'm a little sad that this where they decided to waste their apparent one-per-week punctuation mark.

By the next episode, I'm sure all will be forgiven. Unless that critter with the eye business is back again. NO, THANKS I say to him. Yeesh.

Today's theme is...

Y'all know how I love a theme by now, right? So, today's theme is OOPS! That doesn't belong there! Both posts feature the exact same grammatical error. I don't think you'll have any trouble figuring that error out.

One of the magical things about the internet is that you can erase your errors. You get a do-over! Yes, errors can be cached, but in the updated version of your site, or tweet, or what-have-you, you can present your best effort to the world.

Here's an article I spotted a while back regarding unemployment in the Asian-American community. I will read almost any article on unemployment these days, especially those discussing the challenges of long-term unemployment. It's a topic that's near and dear to my heart. Here's the first paragraph as it stands right now:

I'm gonna stick with my hyphen. I like it. 

But here's how that section looked when I first read the article way back when:

OOPS!

So, yeah. They totally fixed it, and that's great! That's what you SHOULD do! I mean, especially in a sentence talking about education. 

Right? It's The Atlantic, for pete's sake. They're fancy and smartypants.

So close!

This submission came from my friend XB, and I'll just let her tell the story:

I took this picture back in 2009 at a Marie Callendar's. I should mention that after I took the picture, one of the hostesses came out to see what I was doing, noticed the mistake, erased it, and fixed it. She was so embarrassed. She wasn't the one who wrote it initially, and while she was fixing it, the manager came over and asked why she was messing with the sign, and she explained it to him, and made me show him the picture I had taken on my camera so that he could see it was wrong. I don't think the person who misspelled got in trouble, but s/he probably wasn't allowed to write the signs anymore. 

Photo by XB

Let's be honest. Serloin is really not the only problem here. This is the sign equivalent of an outfit I saw today. This woman was wearing a t shirt with a gold foil print on it, paired with a beige prairie skirt with white trim, orthopedic sandals, and a porkpie hat. It, like this sign, was a WHOLE LOTTA BUSINESS. How do you even know where to look? Focus, people! Learn some focus! In pitching your lunch specials and crafting your outfits.

Well, and also. Learn to spell your featured specials. That'll come in handy.

(Thanks, XB, for digging this photo up for me!)

Vacation, all I ever wanted...

Here's something I've always been confused by, sort of. Why do people travel in the summer? I mean, I get that kids are out of school, and that our school schedules were built around planting seasons, but still. Doesn't traveling in the heat of the summer kind of suck? You get all piled into the car, and it's hot, and the seats are vinyl and sticky (in Florida, having a leather interior can be a challenge), and the steering wheel is a million degrees, and there are other tourists everywhere, and yuck. But you do it. Because everyone does it. You load up the car and drive a LONG way, just to see something different. For months, all you've thought about is getting into the car and driving, and now that you're in the car, all you can think about is getting back out. Next year, the staycation. But for now, you're heading into the theme park for the rides, the games, and the theme park food.

I've never had a huge problem with theme park food. I mean, I love pizza, and you can almost always find pizza, right? Sure, it's $10/slice, but whatever. YOU'RE HAVING FUN, DAMMIT.

My friend NT and her family did just that recently. Took a road trip to visit family back east. Along the way, they stopped at Cedar Point, which, according to its website, is the Best Amusement Park in the World, though they do give this phrase an asterisk. At Cedar Point, this is what they found to eat:

Photo by NT

So, yeah. The first thing that's wrong? NO PIZZA. Also, they appear to have run out of Rs halfway through making the sign, but found some more by the next line. Also also, if you order the loaded park fries, do you get fries with that? How many times a day do you suppose they answer that question?

And let's be honest. If you had to choose between a hambuger and a maverick burger, I think we all know what you'd choose. Does the maverick burger feel the need to speed through your system? Will it go rogue on you? Most importantly, will it take my breath away? DO YOU GET A LITTLE GOOSE ON THE SIDE?

Ahem.

If we're still working with my theory that when letters go missing they pop up somewhere else, then I fully expect this R to turn up in about a week. Keep an eye out for it!

(Thanks for thinking of me, NT!)

Lunch time!

Can we talk about sandwiches? I love 'em. Well, let me be specific. I love toasted/grilled/pressed sandwiches. I have a funny food quirk wherein I think meals should be hot. So, I'm not a huge fan of cold sandwiches. But hot ones, especially paninis? LOVE. My current favorite sandwich is the club panini from Corner Bakery. (aside: technically, the singular is panino, and the plural is panini, but we'll just go with the incorrect common usage here, since panino may make me appear even more whackadoo than usual) It's got turkey, bacon, white cheddar, tomatoes, and pepper on sourdough bread, and it is DELIGHTFUL. Trust me.

So, when my friend CG sent me this pic, I thought at first she was just sending me the menu from a restaurant she'd found that maybe I'd want to try, because they serve paninis. But no, she had another reason.

Photo by CG

Y'all, I googled this one, to see if maybe it was a thing I didn't know about. Google basically said no. It just switched over to a search for "oven BAKED panini," and is probably still snickering at me.

Also, I hate menus like this where they don't say what else is on the chicken panini. I mean, you have to assume it's not just chicken and bread. But what else? And don't they get tired of answering that question? Do other people not care? Would y'all just order something without really knowing what you're getting? That seems silly to me.

I am clearly taking a stand against this entire menu. I just can't with this. NO. HAVE SOMETHING ELSE FOR LUNCH TODAY.

(Thanks to CG for this awesome pic! Thanks for thinking of me when you saw it!)

Good morning, Sunshine!

And so another weekend has ended, and you're back at work, dreaming about your next cup of coffee. Ah, coffee. I don't actually drink it myself, but the people who do seem SUPER into it. Is there some crack in it? I like to try and tell people that when they mixed up the ink for the Twilight books, they mixed in some crack, and that's why I can't put them down. SURE. Anyway, back to you. And your next cup of coffee. It's on the horizon, isn't it? Where will you get it from? You can't possibly go back to the office kitchen. That stuff isn't fit for even roach consumption, and besides, Weird Office Guy will probably be there, ready to tell you about who he caught stealing pens again, when you don't really care who's stealing pens, and you just can't deal with that right now. Maybe you should take a little break from the office. You've already been there for 3 HOURS, for heaven's sake. What do they want from you? It's high time you got some fresh air. You could go to one of the chains, but that's just giving money to The Man. A local independent shop! That's what you'll do. Freshly brewed coffee, maybe a snack. Sounds perfect!

Let's all go to Daniel's. Oh, but wait. It turns out that's not YOUR coffee.

Photo by KP

That, my friend, is the donut's coffee, and you'd better keep your HANDS OFF. Daniel can keep his cafe. The donut knows what's what.

(Many thanks to loyal reader, friend, and former roommate KP for sending this marvel my way. Did you ever sort out your peacock problem?)

Presented without comment.

Photo by Scott Lowe, via loyal reader and friend IU

(You can see the original photo and where it was taken at Scott's blog.)

TGIFF!

Yay! We made it to another Friday! Hurrah! What are your plans for the weekend? Staying in? Going out? Last weekend was a busy one for me, so this weekend, I'm playing it cool. I have many, many, many books stacked up, waiting to be read, so I foresee a weekend of checking out the cushions on my couch and getting some book ink smudges on my fingers. I know you're jealous!

I just wanted to thank you guys once again for sending in such great submissions! Without your help, I'd have never kept this blog afloat even this long, so I love each and every one of you in my own special way. This Sunday is the 1 month anniversary of SpellFail, and I'm so glad y'all have been along for the ride!

While you're out and about this weekend, keep an eye out for typos and other tragedies, and send them my way if you can!

I'll have today's Presented without comment up in just a little bit. It's another English-as-a-second-language-is-hard-but-you-were-already-on-a-computer submission. Y'all have a great weekend!

(I may have gone a little overboard with the exclamation points in this post. Used up my lifetime allotment, as it were. I get excited sometimes. You understand.)

This just in...

So far, there's been no shortage of TV spelling fails on this blog. It's a tremendous source of letter options, and people do seem to like to take advantage. Local news bears the brunt of this. And listen, I know that local news stations are SERIOUSLY understaffed. Most stations are run by a less-than-skeleton crew, with robotic cameras that are often operated by someone in the booth that's doing 14 other things as well. I know things are bad in TV! I've been mostly unemployed since 2009!

However, unless you want to continue being the punch line in a joke about local news, things like this need to happen with less frequency:

Photo by MSM

Maybe this was typed on the fly. It was a last-minute story that came in, and this lower third was completed nanoseconds before it was needed. Who knows? But if there was time to proofread, and no one bothered? That's a shame. Because rest assured that the people in your broadcast area are mocking you.

(Thanks to loyal reader and internet buddy MSM for sending me this pic of her local news. You're the best!)

Mirror, Mirror...

Summer movie season is the best, isn't it? Unless you're a fancy movie snob, I guess. Big blockbusters are a great way to escape from everything that's bugging you: the heat, your chatty coworkers, your boring alien-free life, etc. I love the big special effects, the crazy huge fights, the elaborate costumes, all of it. For the movie industry, however, these films represent one thing: money. Endless articles are written analyzing and overanalyzing the money that's made, not made, lost, and wasted. Each movie is pitted against all the movies that opened the previous week as well as every other movie that's even vaguely similar, trying to figure out how more money can be made.

Which brings us to this article. In it, we learn that Snow White and the Huntsman overperformed at the box office its first weekend out. It was, in other words, a megabit. Wait. What?

I didn't like 4 of the movies in this paragraph. That includes the 2 I didn't see.

I admit that perhaps the writer meant megabit. Maybe it's some sort of industry jargon I don't know. But I think the writer meant to say megaHit. I mean, that seems right, no?

And yes, Battleship is also missing a t. I used to have this discussion with a coworker wherein I argued that regardless of whatever spelling or grammar errors a studio committed in titling a movie, that was still the official title, and we couldn't change the title in our lower thirds, just because the title was incorrect. It was a fun "discussion." We had it a lot. And I think you know what I mean by fun. Anyway, the point is, Battleship is wrong. This way, it kind of makes you want to say Bat-Les-Hip. Which is the name of my vineyard in the south of France.

Send food immediately!

Continuing with the theme of food, and food confessions, here's another one that's not very surprising. I enjoy fried things. Now, I'm not talking about the fair foods, where they take just about any damn thing and drop it in a deep fryer and hope for the best. No. But some fair foods are fine. Fried chicken is a delight. And don't get me started on butter carvings. I can't even tell you the amount of time and brain cells I wasted trying to figure out how I could get a butter turkey from my local grocery store home to my mom's house for Thanksgiving one year. Butter turkey, y'all? How could you not love that? In a small table size. Genius. But you know what's my favorite fair food? Funnel cake. I just love it. It's bread! It's fried! It's vaguely beignet-tasting! How could you not love that?

So, when you find a place that's local-ish and will sell you a funnel cake, you have to jump on it, right? Even if the sign throws you a bit.

Funnel cake and pizza? Please, tell me more

I don't really care where this funnel cake has made its mark. I still want some. I also appreciate that Big Brother is watching me check out this sign, as though they know it's spelled wrong, and are recording the moment you realize it. Or, are recording anyone who tries to fix it. Is this a thing, Venice Beach? 

Let's meet up, y'all. Pizza and funnel cakes. And then a brisk 10 mile jog to start working it off. Who's in? 

(Thanks to my friend MAB for snapping a pic of this treasure and sending it my way!)

I love you, food.

I don't think it's any secret that I enjoy food. I'm a fairly picky eater, but on the plus side, I'm a cheap date. You set me up with a delicious pizza and some good beer, and I'm yours. Sandwiches, salads, pasta, seafood. Cheese, bread, chocolate. I'm a boring eater, consistent to a fault. Sadly, that means I've often perused the menus of my regular places too many times to count, and found all the spelling errors there are to be found in them. However, that's where you come in! Menus are a treasure trove of interesting and creative solutions in the letter-options category, as I like to call it. Or, at least, that's how many menu writers seem to think. Again, if you're going to the expense of having something printed that will represent your restaurant and its food, you might want to have someone proofread it, just in case you missed something. You just never know.

This submission came to me from my internet buddy CP. Just take a look.

WHO ELSE IS NOW HUNGRY?

Do you see it? Here's a close up croppy-do, in case you can't.

Whatever. I'd want the shrimp anyway.

The real tragedy here is that it's spelled correctly directly below, making it a typo that slipped by everyone. Who knows how many everyones went into the making of this error.

Is Black Peeper the name of my new band, or a new skateboarding move? "Dude, have you seen her pull off a Black Peeper? It is WICKED!"

(The kids totally don't talk like that anymore, do they? Crap. I am old and crotchety. DON'T JUDGE ME. Thanks for the pic, CP!)

I love a deal!

It's hard to classify this entry as just a spelling error. Because of the spelling error, this, like the last entry, is now the wrong word. (See what I did there? I love a theme!) This one doesn't take a lot of set up. Except, if you're looking for a good submission to send me (and I know you are!), you should look no further than your local Val-Pak.

I have never considered insuring my frames. 

It's ENSURE. With an E. Unless they are also insuring their frames, which I guess is possible. But here, that's just not what we're on about.

Sometimes I weep a little bit for the future, y'all. But then I have a sandwich, and I'm ok.

Words are your friends.

I'm a recent convert to the Kindle, but I am a HUGE fan. I'm the kind of person that loves to go back and reread my favorite sections of books, so I think it's fantastic to have my ereader on me at all times, so I can look up a passage in a book, or maybe start a new one, or two, whenever is convenient for me. You don't have to carry all those heavy books around! You can just read whatever you want.

One of my big issues, though, is that the formatting for ebooks is often haphazard at best. I don't know why this happens. For some reason, it seems that the final version of the print book can't be used, and they have to redo the editing and formatting entirely for the ebook version. I find that ebooks are riddled with odd errors and misspellings, as though the text is taken from an early draft, and the copy is never proofread, just formatted to fit on the page of the ereader, however it can be crammed in. Sometimes there are even hyphens at the end of lines, as though they're on a typewriter. Remember, fellow old people, when we had to do that sometimes? Word processing software fixes this for you automatically, which is very handy.

Regardless, I really think that ereaders are here to stay, and will continue to increase in use, because they're just so damn handy. Even if the editors of ebooks can't even be bothered to use the right WORD in sentences.

A library book on my Kindle! Favorite worlds collide!

Can you see it? 8th line from the top. "Witnesses or causalities." This is also an instance where spellcheck can't save you, since of course, causalities is definitely a word. But y'all. "Witnesses or CASUALTIES." Right? That's what's meant to be here, right? Because causalities doesn't work here at all. I mean, I'm sure we could sit down and hash this out, and determine that maybe, in a way, causalities might work here. But no. It's casualties. Right? It has to be.

And that's not the only problem in this paragraph. Seriously, if I were an author, and this were my novel, I'd be raging. At a certain point, you think you're safe leaving things in the hands of professionals, and those so-called professionals leave you with this hatchet job. It's tragic. That's somebody's baby, y'all.

I don't know if it's just a bad attitude towards ebooks that's causing this, or just that publishers, like everyone else, are tremendously short staffed, but simply have to try harder. People learn from reading books! And now they will learn things that are wrong. It's not ok, Amercia.

Be better, publishers!

Mooooondaaaayyyy

It’s Monday, and I’m sure you want to ease back into work. No need to rush these things. Hopefully, these links will allow you the time you need to gracefully reacquaint yourself with the work week. Grab a morning beverage of your choice. It’ll help. 

This article discusses the work of copy editors and why we need them. 

It turns out America isn’t the only word stumping the Romney campaign.

While this isn’t as fantastical as the School of Public Affairs’ flub, there does appear to be a little debate as to where to place fault. I personally think it is NOT a printer’s job to check for errors. They should just print whatever they get. But if the error is their fault, they should eat the cost, for sure. (h/t to loyal reader and friend KN for this link)

Listen, as the owner of an Awkward Last Name, I know precisely how IRRITATING it can be when people get it wrong. Especially when it’s a relatively simple awkward last name. (Yep, I capitalize that because it’s the name of a club. In my head, anyway. If I meet you, and I decide you have an awkward last name? You are automatically added to the roster.) (h/t to loyal reader and friend DW for sending me this link)