The Wrong Word Entirely, # 8

I know I promised you more from the Guardian's Consumer Champions, but the Telegraph suddenly entered the fray with a hideous mangle, too good to delay:

Link: The Telegraph, 'Ukip's founder says the party has gone "completely fruitcake"'

Two for the price of one in a single sentence.

This bit's worth reproducing too:

The academic also said that he received letters complaining about the spelling and grammar used in Mr Farage’s election literature.

“There seemed to be a bit of problem distinguishing its from it’s,” Prof Sked recalled, adding that Mr Farage did admit that writing was not his area of expertise.

Not Washed or Cooked, # 23

I'm looking forward to trying this new Indian restaurant and takeaway. It has an interesting menu, though this section hasn't been checked very carefully:

You Cannot Be Serious, # 20

Boston University is presently running a self-promotion campaign, online ―

Link: Boston University, 'Loblolly Pine Tree' (via the 'Keep Reading' link)

― and in a rather hideously-hued print version (in last week's Times Higher Education Supplement):

The appropriate term for this strangely structured syntax may be 'breathless'. It certainly isn't 'deathless'… Are we to suppose that this reflects the preferred house style for BU students and academics?

Not Washed or Cooked, # 22

Good to see the Grauniad back on form at the weekend, fighting off competition from the Tolygroff:

Link: Guardian, 'Shopkeeper uses wooden stool to fight off armed robber – video'

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 52

Today, a hardy perennial:

Link: Waitrose.com, Taste of London competition (access via login only)

You Cannot Be Serious, # 4

It's not the hideous grammatical error that secures this clipping its place in You Cannot Be Serious, but the unfortunate extraneous preposition :

Source: Rugby Observer (print), 10 January 2013, p. 3;  online

Me, myself, and I…

Found online this morning, on a business website: 

[…] designed by myself in conjunction with top British manufacturers.

This features the common error of using 'myself' when the writer means 'me', resulting here in a contradiction: has the writer done the designs alone (which is what 'by myself' means) or with someone else ('in conjunction with')?

The correct way to express this statement would be:

[…] designed by me in conjunction with top British manufacturers.

Similarly, the word 'myself' is not the same as 'I'. It isn't correct to say

John and myself went to the cinema 

when actually

John and I went to the cinema.

You can check which is right by removing the other person from the statement. You  would say

I went to the cinema

not 

myself went to the cinema

so it won't be correct to change the I to myself if someone goes with you!