Double-take, # 143

John Holloway felt that something in the email from his solicitor was not quite right:

responaw for respondent

Double-take, # 142

This comes via John Holloway, who comments: ‘A submarine blockage or a submarine blockade?’ As often happens, it’s hard to tell whether the mangle is due to a typographical error or a genuine confusion of words:

Link: BBC iPlayer, ‘2–6 March 1915. Home Front — Omnibus’

blockage for blockade

Apostrophe catastrophe, # 77

Dr Faustus may have been left in the Royal Mail Delivery Office queue for too long:

Gertrudes letter

The Wrong Word Entirely, # 75

This is the Facebook notification of the results of an internet questionnaire, which may well have more mangles in it and can be found here:

lam of innocence

Singular or Plural? # 15

Following on nicely from Wednesday’s ill-formed and verbose headlines and yesterday’s two-nouns-with-singular-verb comes another grammatically suspect and overlong headline, spotted by Des Pond of Slough:

Link: The Telegraph, ‘Prince Charles letters […]

A panel of seven senior judges are

Singular or Plural? # 14

John Holloway has sent in ‘a mangle from Wiltshire police’:

drinking and drug driving costs lives

You Cannot Be Serious, # 41

A new contributor, with the nom-de-mangle fellow grammar enthusiast & coffee snob, has sent this horrible headline and subhead, which only a small change in word order and/or better punctuation might have improved — and when did headings become so lengthy and detailed?

Link: The Guardian

For mentally ill too often prison means solitary, neglect, and even death || […] series of failures by authorities that are only too common

You Cannot Be Serious, # 40

Today, Warwick Conferences being less than edifying in an online booking confirmation. To be fair, it might be because no bed and breakfast booking was made as part of the conference registration — but then, why show the confirmation at all?

please contact xxxxxxxxxxxx; cancelled before x:xxxxxxx; cancelled after xxxxxxxx

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 172

Not quite an apostrophe catastrophe, since there was clearly an attempt to insert the required apostrophe; but a check to see what was showing onscreen might have been wise before posting:

Link: Daily Mail, ‘The genius who vanished […]’, picture caption

Nick¿s

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 171

Des Pond of Slough thought for a moment that he was seeing double…

Link: BBC News, ‘Coventry Canal Basin bridge removal plans spark safety fears’

Plans to replace plans to replace a ring road footbridge

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 170

A small omission, via Dr Faustus:

Source: BBC News for smartphone, and online: ‘Boy trapped 20 feet down ravine near Pontypridd rescued’

understood to 11 years old

Double-take, # 141

This formulation started appearing some time ago, and is now used widely — but it doesn’t actually say what it means:

Source: BBC News for smartphone, and online: ‘Car smoke ban “to start in October”’

It’s not clear whether this ridiculous phrase was coined by someone in government or a journalist, but since children are not legally allowed to smoke, it’s obvious that smoking with them would also be against the law. Either the construction ‘smoking in cars with children’ needs to conclude with the preposition in, or with should be replaced with a meaningful qualifier, such as containing.

Smoking in cars with children

Not Washed or Cooked, # 215

This mangle, which comes with an apostrophe catastrophe, suggests that human beings are still used to input media Twitter posts:

Link: Twitter, The Times of London (status 577220226263224320)

theres less satisfication

Not Washed or Cooked, # 214

From Mo Juste, who says: ‘The restaurant and the menu seem to disagree on the name. On the plus side they do damn tasty South Indian food.’

Asian Exprss

Double-take, # 140

Dr the Homie Smith says of this mangle: ‘I suppose if you pronounce the name of the play with a really posh accent, it might be spelled this way.’

Link: Manchestertheatres.com, Lowry Theatre listings

King Leah

Mangling Meaning, # 27

A syntactical illogicality results in unintentional and unfortunate humour:

Link: The Guardian, ‘What do doctors say to “alternative therapists” […]’

after he died and was forced to sell the house

Double-take, # 139

I recall that there has been a discussion on Facebook — possibly on this blog’s Facebook page — about an odd habit of using quotation marks to add emphasis. I don’t think emphasis is why they’re used in this instance, but I have no idea what they and/or the capital letter are intended to convey:

Link: The Rugby Register, North & Villages Edition (December 2014), p. 30

list your unwanted ‘Things’

Not Washed or Cooked, # 213

Dr Faustus may have found this shouty appeal from the management in a Co-op staffroom… It is dubious in both its wording and its punctuation:

evenry; 1 weeks’ salary; we have wasted , as a store over £83000 worth [&c]

Not Washed or Cooked, # 212

More swift action by Dr Faustus has preserved this hideous mangle:

Source: BBC News for smart devices, ‘M4 Cardiff crash […]

The online version is correct, but clearly wasn’t originally as a Google search shows that it escaped onto the Internet. (Many of these sources have also now been corrected.)

scene of ‘caranage’

Not Washed or Cooked, # 211

An excellent find by Dr Faustus, especially as the online version has been corrected:

Source: The Telegraph for smart devices, ‘How the European dream is dying, state by state’

Euroscpetiticism

The Wrong Word Entirely, # 74

Not the first time this mangle has featured on the blog, but the first time it has come from an educational source. Well spotted, Dr Faustus!

Source: Brighton Journalist Works, ‘Fast-track NCTJ Diploma in Journalism’ prospectus, p. 9

Link: online pdf

affect for effect

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 169

From the inbox of Dr Faustus, who comments: ‘I’m pretty sure Imelda Staunton would be horrified to see her name mangled thus!’ Indeed, it is a major mangle to inflict on a famous actress. Perhaps her next Ethel Merman revival role should be Call Me Madam…

To be fair, LondonTheatreDirect.com have managed to spell the name correctly online.
Stanton for Staunton

Not Washed or Cooked, # 210

Dr Faustus has been sending his backlog in. This is from a webpage on the English language:

Link: Vox, ‘25 Maps that Explain the English Language’, ‘6: The Great Vowel Shift’

prounounced

Apostrophe catastrophe, # 76

Another from Sky’s new television guide team. It won’t be the last!

Time Lords […] adventure

Double-take, # 138

Not necessarily a mangle, but surely either erroneous or pointless?

Link: Amazon.co.uk, ‘Doctor Who Remote Controlled Inflatable Dalek’

Maybe the reduction was worthwhile, though: it’s sold out.
RRP: £34.99 Price: £34.95 You Save: £0.04

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 168

A small omission:

Link: The Telegraph, ‘Student loans are tough to clear — even when you've got the cash’

missing of [full cost student loans]

Not Washed or Cooked, # 209

Another mangled headline from The Independent:

Link: The Independent, ‘World’s largest plane graveyard […]’

As so often happens, this mangle quickly ran round the digital world:

Link: Google, search for "amaznig interactive map"

amaznig

The Wrong Word Entirely, # 73

John Holloway comments: ‘The beer and wine at the Bolingbroke (Swindon) are so polite!’

The substitute of compliment for complement is not the only confusion. The final remark should either be connected to the previous one (precisely as in the earlier coda, ‘all freshly prepared’) or supplied with an active verb (‘is’?) so it can stand as a complete sentence. Punctuation is a problem: the comma after ‘includes’ is superfluous, and would be better placed after ‘sauce’ since, as it stands, the last offering in the list seems to be an unusual surf-and-turf dish. 

complimented for complemented

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 167

No proofreading = no sense:

Link: The Independent, ‘Muslim women’s rights campaigner […]’

co-exited for co-existed

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 166

Mo Juste on mangled Sundays in Northampton:

preformed for performed

Double-take, # 74

This Guardian writer is horrified by implicit gender stereotyping in some primary school homework. It’s a fair concern; but the hideous confusion of pronouns seems a greater problem than the font face. Surely politically-correct grammar only has any claim to validity if it’s consistent?

Link: The Guardian, ‘Young children must be protected from ingrained gender stereotypes’

he … they; they … wife