Multimangle, # 31

With a touch of déjà vu (see yesterday), here is another Shoulder of Mutton menu from The Rugby Register, submitted by Des Pond of Slough. His main concern was the conceit in the titles of the courses, which, as he says, starts so well then goes so wrong; but there are several other mangles on offer too, not all of them in English:

Link: The Rugby Register, North and Villages edition, advertisement for The Shoulder of Mutton, p. 23

first bell, second bell, full peel; goats cheese; gileete potato for gillette; french toast; mush for mash (?); celeriace; passion fruit; frangipan for frangipane; cinemon

Multimangle, # 30

From Des Pond of Slough comes this extract, featuring an apostrophe catastrophe, a homophone and an unusual, if unmangled, description of a traditional menu item:

Link: The Rugby Register, North and Villages edition, advertisement for The Shoulder of Mutton, p. 37

bite’s for bites; fayre for fare; [soup of the moment]

Other Englishes, # 3

These rather mangled instructions, submitted by Dr Faustus, come with Apachie brand bluetooth sports headphones:

alternativley; audiable; either devices

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 211

Submitted by Dr Faustus:

Link: BBC News, ‘US FDA partially lifts gay men blood donation ban’

counties for countries

Not Washed or Cooked, # 281

Here is a pair of mangles on a seasonal theme. The first can be found on the website of Cotswold & Stuart, specialists in philately:

Link: Cotswold & Stuart, ‘Royal Mail Christmas Panomime Minisheet FDC’

This one (with unavoidably small text — click it to enlarge a little) comes from the press:

Link: Donegal Daily, ‘Dwarfs group’

pantoime; panomime

Not Washed or Cooked, # 280

Today’s mangle (actually two, plus the slew of exclamation marks) has been waiting in the archive folder for a suitable time:

Link: Our Lady of Victory Catholic School, Chicago, Mrs Kumala’s Preschool Class blog

Chritmsas; everyday for every day

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 210

This meme, complete with homophonous mangle and random capitalization, is presently doing the rounds on Facebook, and seems an appropriate way for Mangling English to celebrate the season:

too for to; random capitalization

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 209

Sharp-eyed Dr Faustus spotted these two mangles in an advertisement for PGS Global Logistics on the side of a bus passing by on Warwick University campus:

enquires for enquiries; it’s for its

The Wrong Word Entirely, # 93

Foxed by a homophone? Via Dr Faustus:

Link: TimeOut London, review of Our Country’s Good

course for coarse

Not Washed or Cooked, # 279

A surprising sub-headline:

Link: The Independent, ‘When nuisance calls become a lot more sinister’

enexpected

Not Washed or Cooked, # 278

Des Pond of Slough was surprised this mangle made it to publication, especially given the size of the lettering and the sparseness of the copy:

Link: Rugby Observer, 10 December, 2015, p. 32

hundereds

Not Washed or Cooked, # 277

Now removed, here is an advertisement that was on Gumtree at the beginning of this month:

Original link: Gumtree, ‘Englsih lessions […]’

Englsih

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 208

Odd phrasing and a typographical error:

Link: Rugby and Lutterworth Observer, Contact page

enquires for enquiries; feel free to contact any of the people listed below or via the contact form provided

Not Washed or Cooked, # 276

This is taken from The Guardian’s version of an article first published (as a comment at the end advises) in Mosaic — without the mangle. This rather implies that someone at The Guardian has been practising hypercorrection. A note subsequently added to the text refers to a factual correction made on 16 December; this mangle, however, remains:

Link: The Guardian, ‘What science doesn’t know about the menopause: what it’s for and how to treat it’

bespioke

Multimangle, # 29

Today’s main mangle, an adjective that has been mistaken for a similar word, sits in glorious splendour at the head of this screamer. The adjacent caption uses the mangled word correctly, and shows why it was wrong when first used, and also contains a lovely mangle of its own!

Link: Rugby Observer, 12 November, 2015, p. 1

seasonal for seasonable; Cristmas

Not Washed or Cooked, # 275

This mangle, from Dr Faustus, has been neither spell-checked nor proofread — but is very large:

Link: PinkNews, ‘Watch: Straight guys are now making out with eachother to spite Kim Davis’

eachother

Multimangle, # 28

Dr Faustus sent this in for Singular or Plural?, highlighting the second paragraph’s nasty noun-verb disagreement. I’ve also kept the previous paragraph in the screenshot, which supplies a range of mangles, including the failed past participle, the nonsensical order of the first two clauses which, as it stands, expresses a chronological impossibility, and also the use of an indicative (‘is’) where a subjunctive would make more sense. The BBC’s own version of the text has now been considerably altered by further editing, but the text as originally published can be found via a Google search:

Link: BBC News, ‘China’s yuan gains IMF reserve status’

have suggest; concerns […] is; If Beijing’s wish is granted later on Monday, some analysts have suggest that by 2030 […]

Not Washed or Cooked, # 274

This, as Dr Faustus says, is a gem:

Link: HoldTheFront Page.co.uk, ‘New version of Editors’ Code published following post-Leveson overhaul’

acccuracy

Double-take, # 203

At some point in the last year or so, someone at eBay (or possibly ebay: both can be found on the company’s webpages these days) altered this word in the email notification template from the correct spelling to this mangle, ignoring the company’s own advice on checking spelling:

matche

Not Washed or Cooked, # 273

Spotted at the Wibbas Down Arms in Wimbledon by Dr Faustus:

sirlion

The Wrong Word Entirely, # 92

This was submitted by John Holloway, with the caption ‘Horseplay at Skyscanner?’ It is a companion mangle to one featured last year (12 April, 2014). It may be a typographical error; this time there is certainly no possibility of allowing it as an eggcorn:

Link: Skyscanner, ‘Carry on: readers’ opinions on cabin luggage restrictions’

confusion reins

Double-take, # 202

How can any professional writer think that a singular verb might be appropriate here? (The article’s title seems short of a possessive pronoun, too.)

Link: The Sunday Times, ‘Money’ section, ‘At 95, I’m fighting the NHS to fund wife’s care’

millions of pounds has [+ title: At 95, I’m fighting the NHS to fund wife’s care]

Not Washed or Cooked, # 272

Ryan McCarthy found this mangle on Amazon:

Link: Amazon UK

clork for clock

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 207

Old Chelsea has been dining at Ciao Bella in London, where at least one mangled dessert is on offer:

covered with tick layer

Double-take, # 201

Des Pond of Slough is puzzled by a word in a news report, though clearly not as puzzled as the reporter. There is also the matter of the use of both ‘curly’ and ‘straight’ quotation marks. Is this accidental, or are they intended to convey some nuance?

Link: The Telegraph, ‘Secret Russian radioactive doomsday torpedo leaked on television’

asymetically [+ curly & straight quotation marks]

Double-take, # 200

Another mangled on-screen television programme guide entry (see here for an earlier one) for that cult classic series The Avengers. After the — erroneous — substitution of plural for singular in the first sentence, everything becomes very confused indeed:

peoples for people [+ general confusion]

Apostrophe catastrophe, # 106

This comes from the mangle backlog, and seems a suitable running-mate for the unusual apostrophe catastrophe found by Dr Faustus and featured on 29 November, 2015:

Link: The Guardian, ‘Marks & Spencer under fire over online tax arrangements’

M&’s for M&S’s

The Wrong Word Entirely, # 91

Not actually a homophone, and definitely not the right word, as spotted by John Holloway in a mangle for which he chose the caption: ‘Interesting evening activities in Plymouth?’ The first picture shows the object described and part of the mangled sign; the second displays the mangle in full:

carousal for carousel

Apostrophe catastrophe, # 105

John Holloway spotted a small herd of misplaced apostrophes in Walton in the Naze:

eel’s, cockle’s, prawn’s, mussel’s, whelk’s, winkle’s, crab’s

Apostrophe catastrophe, # 104

Earlier this year, John Holloway received an apostrophe catastrophe by email:

camera’s for cameras

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 206

John Holloway finds a homophonous mangle in a manufacturer’s survey. Some quotation marks seem to have escaped too:

here for hear; quotation marks missing

Double-take, # 199

Vice Commodore Pugwash spotted this notice by a fire alarm at the Defence Academy, and is justly amazed by ‘glass which knows who is authorised to break it!’

Only authorised persons able to break glass

Apostrophe catastrophe, # 103

Dr Faustus comments: ‘I don't think I’ve ever seen this one before!’ It is an oddity indeed:

Link: BBC News, ‘“Trojan Horse”: Park View pupils “fed diet of Islam”’

The item has been tacitly rewritten since its original posting on 16 November, 2015 and the report as it now stands has clearly been much extended. While no reference to subsequent editing is made on the BBC‘s page, Newssniffer has archived an early change, together with the original report.
Mr’s Ahmed conduct

Double-take, # 198

It may resemble a plural noun, but it isn’t one… The correct word appears twice in the report:

Link: Coventry Telegraph, ‘Nearly 19,000 summons [sic] issued in Coventry […]’

summons for summonses

Not Washed or Cooked, # 271

Spotted by John Holloway. Perhaps the writer was thinking about fish…

soley

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 205

Mo Juste comments: ‘As a keen supporter of Northampton Town Football Club, I’ve been following recent developments, but it’s hard to know when the administration petition will be heard according to this headline’ — when or even whether!

Link: Northampton Chronicle & Echo, ‘Administration petition for Northampton Town […]’

by on

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 204

Dr Faustus has found another ‘tragedy to farce’ mangle. Does it really take too long to check before posting?

Link: BBC News, ‘Swindon church service held for whale boat victims’

hot for hit

Not Washed or Cooked, # 270

Unqualified ‘quality’ further undermined by typographical error:

Link: QualitySolicitors, ‘My employer has not paid my wages – is there anything I can do?’

financil

Double-take, # 197

A humdinger of a mangle spotted by Dr Faustus:

Link: BBC News, ‘Russian plane crash […]’

There are lot’s of anger

Apostrophe catastrophe, # 102

The apostrophe’s absence seems somehow worsened by the inclusion of a possessive intensifier:

Link: Halfords, ‘Winter Demister Bundle’

your vehicles own heating system

Singular or Plural? # 17

Someone in Sainsbury’s sign-writing department seems confused about grammatical number, and varying the order of the nouns doesn’t help:

chicken and beef is; beef and chicken is

Not Washed or Cooked, # 269

The final entry from Jean-Paul Sartre, Basic Writings is the one that would probably have impressed Sartre least, since his idea is complicated enough without a careless error in its key phrase:

Jean-Paul Sartre, Basic Writings, ed. by Stephen Priest (London & New York: Routledge, 2001), p. 16

Having said on the first day of mangles from this text that I’d given up on the book after the introduction, I’d also point out that there may be more errors in this first chapter than are documented here, as I was just skim-reading it to check whether it was suitable to recommend to students.

The responsibility for close-reading/editing, proof-reading and polishing texts for publication belongs to the author and publisher, of course; but it cannot truly be said that readers and buyers of this book have been treated with much respect by either, despite the fact that the Routledge’s website boasts the company to be ‘the world’s leading academic publisher in the Humanities and Social Sciences’.

are are

Not Washed or Cooked, # 268

Still more from Jean-Paul Sartre, Basic Writings:

Jean-Paul Sartre, Basic Writings, ed. by Stephen Priest (London & New York: Routledge, 2001), p. 12

chesnut tree

Not Washed or Cooked, # 267

More from Jean-Paul Sartre, Basic Writings:

Jean-Paul Sartre, Basic Writings, ed. by Stephen Priest (London & New York: Routledge, 2001), p. 9

appartment

Not Washed or Cooked, # 266

Day Three of Jean-Paul Sartre, Basic Writings offers this mangle:

Jean-Paul Sartre, Basic Writings, ed. by Stephen Priest (London & New York: Routledge, 2001), p. 7

authoritive

Not Washed or Cooked, # 265

Another mangle from the introductory chapter of Jean-Paul Sartre, Basic Writings:

Jean-Paul Sartre, Basic Writings, ed. by Stephen Priest (London & New York: Routledge, 2001), p. 7

meterological

Not Washed or Cooked, # 264

Not long ago, I overheard a couple of senior academics expressing regret that they had been unable to add a recently-published book to the reading list because, while the author’s ideas were excellent and the topic rarely addressed, the text was so filled with errors that it simply could not be recommended to students. The key problem, they agreed, was the demise of copy-editing in academic publishing houses.

This rot set in some time ago. The next few days’ mangles are devoted to the introductory chapter of a collection of Jean-Paul Sartre’s writings that I was reading — until I had to abandon it shy of page 20 — with a view to adding it to a reading list. The book, targeted specifically at students, was originally published in 2001, when spell-checkers had long been standard. Puzzlingly, the reprint of 2005 reproduced most of the errors I had found in this edition. Here is the first of them:

Jean-Paul Sartre, Basic Writings, ed. by Stephen Priest (London & New York: Routledge, 2001), p. 3

supression