You Cannot Be Serious, # 57

This political poster is currently doing the rounds on social media. In addition to the typographical mangle and the odd temporal description, the group’s identifying acronym and logo are omitted:

 

airstikes; ‘just several days’ [+ missing identifying logo/acronym]

The Wrong Word Entirely, # 86

Another from Suzanne Sirett. It isn’t clear from the report whether the text was supplied as a written or spoken quotation, so there’s a choice over where the mangle originates:

Link: ABC News, ‘Andrew Laming's senior media adviser, Fiona Edwards, defects to Labor’

indiscrete for indiscreet

Not Washed or Cooked, # 242

A barely subliminal secondary message may be embedded here — or perhaps it’s just a mangle:

destory for destroy

Multimangle, # 15

Another contribution from Dr Faustus. This press release, reproduced verbatim on the Coombe Monthly website, offers a confusion of dates, some odd diction and punctuation, and, as both heading and subject line, a couple of nasty apostrophe catastrophes:

The Lib-Dems have sold us out, we need a workers MP on a workers wage; TUSC supporters held a protest yesterday (Monday 4 April) to protest […]; email date 7 April, press release date 7 March

Apostrophe catastrophe, # 40

You’d think UKIP would support correct English grammar…:

it’s for its

Not Washed or Cooked, # 91

One word, so many mangles, so few spell-checkers… In alphabetical order, then:

Link: AutonomousEducation.com, ‘Making a Chistmas Tree Decoration’

Link: Shutterstock.com, ‘Chrestmas tree. Chrestmas and New Year Background’

Link: Boots, ‘Pharmacy & Healthcare Christmass offers’*

Link: Krrb, ‘Royal Albert Christmes Magic — set of 8 footed cup’

Link: iTunes, ‘Children’s Christms Classics’

Link: Hagley Golf & Country Club, ‘Christmas Lunch and Dinner Menu — Christmas Day Menu’

Link: Visit Manchester, ‘Jingle Bell Chritmas at Bridgewater Hall’

Link: eBay.co.uk, ‘Charles & Camilia signed 2011 Chritmass card — 100% Genuine’

Link: South Holland District Council, ‘Crhistmas Lights Switch On’ (cached page, now withdrawn)

More mangles tomorrow. As for today: Merry Christmas, however you prefer to spell it!

* Because nothing says Christmas(s) like pharmacy and healthcare products…

Not Washed or Cooked, # 64

A friend has just asked me how I find the mangles I post. More to the point, how do I stop finding them? Mangles are all over the place: almost every book and newspaper I read, virtually every website I visit, everywhere I go, mangles surround me.

Yesterday I went into town with a friend, walked across a car park, chatting away, and two steps past the parking-ticket machine I stopped, reversed, double-checked, and got the camera out for this gem caught in the corner of my eye:

A traffic warden came over to see what I was doing. As soon as we told him there was an error, he spotted it and laughed a lot. I think I’ve made a new convert to the world of Mangling English. Perhaps I should make some cards to hand out…

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 83

The text here is very hard on the eye due to the bold and italic combination, while the verb in the first sentence’s subordinate clause should be in the subjunctive mood (that residents be able), not in the indicative. Finally, and proving that someone has simply copied and pasted the extract without properly reading either the original or the resulting text, there’s a stray chunk of HTML code:

Link: Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council, ‘Noise Pollution Prosecution’

You Cannot Be Serious, # 17

This one's been waiting for a free slot since February. The report is called 'School caterers "confident" about meat supplies', but the quotation doesn't really back that up:

Link: BBC News, 'School caterers "confident"…'

Hmm… probably the best certainty in the world?