Multimangle, # 27

A nasty misspelling plus a major mismatch in grammatical logic between the question and answer categories:

Source: Eurostar UK journey satisfaction survey

knowledgable + grammatical mismatch between option subjects & answer categories

Double-take, # 184

Via Dr Faustus, a section from one of those irritating and increasingly widespread ‘news reports’ that are largely based on reproducing, usually graphically, Twitter posts. The mangle, which arrives at the end, may well be an expression of the reporter’s boredom. I’m amazed Dr Faustus lasted so long through the piece!

Link: ITV News, ‘Spectator magazine under fire for article on Liz Kendall’s and Yvette Cooper’s looks’

Asked by Channel 4 News journalist Fraser Nelson […], editor Fraser Nelson said

Not Washed or Cooked, # 255

The mangled place-name has featured before; the adverb is making its debut. It seems more likely that the subheading was composed by a sub-editor than the comment-article writer; in either case it’s substandard:

Link: The Telegraph, ‘This is why “Pension Isas” would be a disaster’

seriosuly; Britian

Apostrophe catastrophe, # 94

Old-school full-stops (periods) to mark abbreviations: good; apostrophes to pluralize: bad — whatever planet you’re from!

U.F.O.’s

Not Washed or Cooked, # 254

Careless finishing:

Link: The University of Chicago Press, ‘Curtis E. Larsen, Life and Land Use on the Bahrain Islands’

thousant for thousand

Apostrophe catastrophe, # 93

Direct to the inbox of Dr Faustus (top). and echoed online (bottom), a very oddly placed apostrophe:

Link: Zizzi, ‘Zizzi tackles cancer’

star’s for stars

Double-take, # 183

Following on from yesterday’s post… I’d gone online to find out whether the website for the Rollright Stones placed an apostrophe in King’s Men, unlike the sign at the physical site, and was surprised to find this oddness (which continues further down the page than I've clipped here) on the page that introduces the various sets of stones: 

Link: The Rollright Stones, ‘The Stones’

Diagnosis: unedited/undeleted placeholders. These may or may not have been visible to the person inputting the text, but they would certainly have been visible to someone checking the page, before (preferably) or after making it live, a practice that should be routine and which, as these leftovers demonstrate, is essential.

Insert… Insert… [&c. Undeleted instructions]

Multimangle, # 26

The stone circle alluded to here certainly predates the apostrophe, and the name applied to it may well do, but the modern signage at the site does not and apostrophes consistently appear in the name on the official website (of which more tomorrow). It is also not apparent why the name here is treated as a plural when ‘The Rollright Stones’ — equally plural to the naked eye — takes singular verb forms on the website (where this name does not appear as a subject); nor why the superfluous singular subject noun in the first paragraph on the sign is treated as if plural:

Kings Men

Singular or Plural? # 16

The Telegraph hedges its bets in this article about the RSPB:

Link: The Telegraph, ‘RSPB’s failure with hen harrier nests in £2m scheme’

RSPB has; RSPB have

Apostrophe catastrophe, # 92

Even though he’d previously spotted mangles in Reed’s job posts, Gary Hazell was taken aback at this one which, as the second screenshot (edited to include only the later section headings) shows, went on and on:

Link: Reed.co.uk, ‘Production Engineer — Swindon, Wiltshire’

you’re for your (x3)

Not Washed or Cooked, # 253

To celebrate the blog’s thousandth post, here is a lovely Midsomer Murders mangle that I’ve been saving for a special occasion:

Source: Midsomer Murders, series 13, episode 6, ‘The Noble Art’

turf accounants

Double-take, # 182

A redoubled prepositional mangle in this headline:

Link: Hereford Times, ‘Hereford dog believed […]’

to be added and removed to banned breed list