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’