Double-take, # 247

At a time when every online report and article must be illustrated, however unpictorial the subject, here is a recent (and mangled) attempt to represent visually the news report ‘Sheffield Posties to Go on Strike this Weekend’:

Link: The Star (Sheffield)

caption (& picture of a hand) ‘posting many letters to red british [sic] postbox on street’, illustrating postal workers strike

Double-take, # 239

Dr Faustus spotted this in his local EE shop:

Apologies’; shut from 5:30 tonight we apologise […]; To Our Valued Customers

Multimangle, # 52

Many a mangle in this advertisement for the Fox Inn, Lutterworth:

Link: Rugby Observer, 19 May, 2016, p. 16

resturaunt, extensiver, your'e [+ random capitalization, punctuation & syntax]

Double-take, # 236

This seems improbable:

Link: MNT/Medical News Today, ‘Menopause Does Not Result In Weight Gain […]’

hops for hips [+ professor for Professor]

The Wrong Word Entirely, # 106

It’s not entirely clear what relevance being a dog owner has here, the concept of a canine facial seems bizarre, and the capitalization is inconsistent — and that is all in addition to the mangle!

nails for claws [dog groomer]

Mangling Meaning, # 38

Via Dr Faustus, meaning is much mangled by a failure (throughout the report) to use the required initial capital letter for the adjective. The odd punctuation in the opening sentence is a bonus:

Link: BBC News

catholic for Catholic; Chief Constable, George Hamilton, says

Multimangle, # 46

The first of a short series of seasonal mangles. Today’s come from a blog that seems to have been created quite recently. The author is not identified.

Link: Happy Easter Bunnies Chocolate Rabbit Photos & Pictures 2016,
‘Happy Easter Sunday Activities For Children’s 2016’

Celebrations on the holy week; Munday Thursday; last super; So friends we hope that you have done all the latest all the latest collection for you. faces on near and dear ones

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 222

Ryan McCarthy spotted this on the menu at The Fox on The Hill, a Wetherspoon pub in Denmark Hill, London:

Cartmel for Caramel OR Cartmel sticky toffee pudding for Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding

Double-take, # 215

An initial capital might help, replacing ‘your’ with ‘a’ would be better; doing both and inserting a relevant noun (‘degree’, perhaps, or ‘course’) would be best of all…

your master’s dissertation

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 221

The last of the competency-test mangles submitted by Dr Faustus contains more spelling errors, more random capitalization and an ill-checked interrogative formulation:

Source: Numerical Reasoning Test

passanger, carrage, which how much more; capitalization

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 220

More competency test mangles from Dr Faustus. Today’s example seems to be mainly about random capitalization, although ‘£1000-worth’ might better express the purchases, or reordering resulting in ‘at £1000’:

Source: Numerical Reasoning Test

Rice; august; Maize; £1000 of Rice/Maize

Not Washed or Cooked, # 283

The Old Hand & Diamond Inn’s menu, featured yesterday, does not confine its mangles to Scottish food and drink:

Link: The Old Hand & Diamond Inn, Coedway

rasberry, rosemay for rosemary (twice), course for coarse; stilton for Stilton

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

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

You Cannot Be Serious, # 55

Confusing labelling at the Rugby branch of Sainsbury’s earlier this year — and this is in addition to the fact that the name of the product on the label should be capitalized:

raspberries labelled jersey potatoes

Double-take, # 179

Another via John Holloway, ‘from the Internet somewhere’. Apart from the random capitalization, the list proceeds well until close to the end, when much becomes mangled:

driver … weighs up to 44 tonnes; random capitalization; punctuation; weights for weighs

You Cannot Be Serious, # 54

Another via John Holloway, from North Walls. The sign might have benefited from more punctuation and less random capitalization, but it’s the bottom line that is particularly mangled:

you for your

You Cannot Be Serious, # 42

If you’ve ever wondered how all those inked mangles arise, this is from an advertisement for a new tattoo shop in Rugby:

Source: Rugby Observer (19 March 2015), p. 3, and online

sureley, Tattoo’s & Artist’s [as plurals]; insuring for ensuring; random capitalization; punctuation problems

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’

Double-take, # 126

Duplication and a slipping capital letter in this report about the dangers of drinking wine:

Link: The Telegraph, ‘Drinking a glass of wine is the same as downing three shots of vodka’

duplicated paragraph & slipping ‘L’