Handritten, # 7

Just Nick says he spotted this somewhere in Nuneaton, adding: ‘Not sure of the specific place — we had to take it at traffic lights!’

parkinig, onley

The Wrong Word Entirely, # 102

This mangle can be found on one of the banners adorning the Museo Nazionale Romano in Rome, promoting the ‘Once Were Romans’ exhibition. New-found Mangler, who spotted it, points out that, in Italian pronunciation, the correct English translation and this erroneous word would be almost homophonous:

leaps for lips

Not Washed or Cooked, # 299

Today’s mangle was spotted in Elephant & Castle Station by Dr Faustus, in an advertisement for Sir John Cass's Foundation and Red Coat School. This is a puzzling error. Surely, with a repeating pattern like this, the obvious thing to do is check the first set thoroughly and then copy and paste it?

Wednesdy

Handritten, # 6

Gary Hazell is surprised by a description on the board of tasting notes for guest ales at the Gluepot public house in Swindon:

larger bitterness

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 216

Dr Faustus, still unimpressed by Waterstones abandoning its apostrophe, doesn’t think much of its staff’s proofreading abilities either:

for those can attend

Problem punctuation, # 13

Syntactical confusion at Shakespeare’s Globe:

Guess what I got you for your birthday?

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, # 99

Spotted at the Diversity Careers Fair at the Royal College of Surgeons by Dr Faustus:

career’s for careers

Not Washed or Cooked, # 256

Pleaseproofread sends this (from which I’ve clipped the relevant section from the full poster), commenting: ‘What a mangle. I suppose we should be glad they spelt “medieval” correctly!’

acamdeic

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]

Not Washed or Cooked, # 251

A mangle in what was overall a rather puzzling notice at Warwick University last term:

prgoress

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

Apostrophe catastrophe, # 87

Via John Holloway, a missing apostrophe and a missing space:

Stewards Flat; Thankyou

Multimangle, # 23

No-one seems to have proofread this text (contributed by Dr Faustus), which comes from the Best Western Hotel, Findlater Place, Dublin:

pre authorisation (x4); Pre authorisation are; thought for though

Multimangle, # 21

The third and final day of mangles spotted by Vice-Commodore Pugwash at the National Defence Academy, Shrivenham. At least the relentless capitalization has been dropped, presumably because this is information rather than instruction:

Monday’s for Mondays; Friday’s for Fridays

Spellchecking Is Never Enough, # 188

A pair of instructions from the walls of the National Defence Academy, Shrivenham, submitted by Vice-Commodore Pugwash:

faulty for faulty; [any for a]; [syntax]; comma for full stop

Double-take, # 162

Vice-Commodore Pugwash spotted this in the Officers’ Mess at the National Defence Academy, Shrivenham:

will incur costs of which will be added; colon

Apostrophe catastrophe, # 81

Spotted by John Holloway, one missing apostrophe (and arguably a missing hyphen), plus another that’s strictly correct though unusual, since business convention usually ignores it:

boatings best kept secrets

Double-take, # 151

This was spotted by John Holloway at Torpoint Yacht Harbour in Cornwall:

Perhaps the writer was a fan of the television series The Dukes of Hazzard.
hazzard for hazard