Not Washed or Cooked, # 241

Most well-known place names can be found in the spelling dictionaries of standard word processors when set to the appropriate location, and spell-checkers are also available for databases, so there is no excuse for this mangle which turned up in a set of directions on the AA’s online route-finder. It was spelt correctly (‘Nuneaton’ if you’re unfamiliar with the name) in the rest of the directions:

Link: AA Route Planner (journey from Wibtoft, Lutterworth to CV10 7DJ, Nuneaton)

Nuenaton

You Cannot Be Serious, # 47

The prospect of free pudding tempted me into completing a feedback form. Sadly, the voucher had too short a use-by date and was not transferable, but I was rewarded with a mangle:

would you choose to dine at if not at [BRAND]?

Mangling Meaning, # 33

Is this ambiguity, redundancy or plain confusion in a promotional email from TomTom? Des Pond of Slough wonders: ‘Does “at once” mean immediately or simultaneously here? Is it “quickly” or “multiple” that is being rendered superfluous?’ 

quickly charge multiple devices at once

The Wrong Word Entirely, # 83

Another of those pesky homophones, perhaps a hangover from the recent general election. The tone and lexis here suggest that The Independent, once a credible broadsheet, is close to completing its transformation into a tabloid, though the report does appear in a section called ‘Weird news’:

Link: The Independent, ‘Man arrested for “kidnapping” his own son […]’

canvass for canvas

Double-take, # 169

Not a mangle so much as an oddity, certainly for those with any knowledge of Ancient Greece, and in context rather an inappropriate usage (which has been widely replicated on the Internet):

Link: BBC News, ‘Greece debt crisis: Eurozone summit strikes deal’

As Des Pond of Slough says, ‘I wonder.how many of the reporters describing Greek “marathon” talks appreciate its origins.’
marathon talks in Brussels [on Greek financial crisis]

Apostrophe catastrophe, # 86

Dr Faustus is still receiving mangled email employment alerts from Unitemps. This one takes the catastrophic apostrophe to a new nadir:

Physic’s

Not Washed or Cooked, # 240

Unchecked mangling, spotted by Dr Faustus:

Link: University of Kent, Department of French, Professor Philip Robinson

righteenth

Double-take, # 168

Clare Selley has been exploring York, where she was quite taken aback by this sign:

butiq for boutique

The Wrong Word Entirely, # 82

Dr Faustus has come upon this erroneous word before in formal literature on journalism courses. This version, on the right, comes with some clunky syntax and bad punctuation, on the left, and can be found in a study programme issued by The National Council for the Training of Journalists:

Link: NCTJ.com, ‘NQJ News Report – Programme of Study 2014-15’

Although the NCTJ is a British association, the document also uses practice as a verb throughout. It appears that at least some of the many mangles of British journalism are actually being taught…

effects for affects; practice for practise

Not Washed or Cooked, # 239

This mangle (in only the third paragraph of the article) leaps out at the reader, but not, it seems, at the writer:

Link: The Telegraph, ‘The UK’s obsession with cheap pasta sauces is causing a food crisis in Italy’

restauarant

Not Washed or Cooked, # 238

A couple of examples of a phrase that Google shows to be very frequently mangled. Here‘s a course in Wales:

Link: Merthyr Tydfil College, ‘A Level Travel and Toursim’

Here is a whole college devoted to the subject:

Link: Google Sites, Why Travel and Tourism, ‘Canadian Toursim College’

Finally, from a formal publication, a variant that turns out not to be a one-off error:

Link: Google search "International Business and Toursim Society"

Google searches show that a surprising number of people on Linkedin are affiliated to this society or have done courses, including university degrees, in related subjects…

toursim for tourism

Double-take, # 167

Just Liam is understandably puzzled by the use of the verb in this newspaper placard in York:

The idea of spontaneity, which requires the construction ‘catches fire’, seems here to have been confused with the idea of agency, ‘is set on fire’. Oxford Dictionaries (fire, 11) confirms that the use of ‘set’ in relation to ‘fire’ needs both a specific preposition and an object, either in the form of ‘set fire to something’ or ‘set something on fire’.

The publication that issued the placard is simply called The Press. The wording is not replicated at the top of the online story, where there is no headline at all, but instead a rather odd and archaic sweep of key points (with rather odd and archaic random capitalization) separated by dashes:

Link: The Press, ‘Bus fire in York […]’

bus engine sets on fire