Typo Eradication Advancement League
I often amuse myself by photographing typos on the road, and I collect Engrish and other oddities of nonstandard English. I like the poetry and unintended extra meaning of (mis)translations and strange spelling. I am a poor grammarian, so most basic errors don’t trouble me too much, but I find misplaced apostrophes on “its” or “it’s” to be one of the more unforgivable, non-entertaining common mistakes.
Jeff Deck and his team are not only documenting typos while they travel, but are actually correcting them as they go. It’s a noble and amusing quest, and you can find more on it here.
Thanks to Jonathan Kingham
for showing me the link.
9 Responses to “Typo Eradication Advancement League”
Jeff Deck is my knight-errant.
Thanks for posting this! I’m with Jeff, not surprisingly. His mission is a noble one. I really hate it when I correct someone and get told that the mistake just doesn’t matter. It does to me, damn it.
One of the best/worst typos I ever saw was in a Chinese restaurant I went to with my Dad in Chicago a long time ago. As we were paying, I noticed a handwritten sign explaining that next month the restaurant would be “closed for remoldering.” Had they run out of mold and decided to close down to replace it?
Were you trying to be ironic with “Advancemet”? Just curious.
Debbie
*cough* Rock Boat 8 banner. *cough*
I’m not naming names but some people might have been yelled at by Sixthman for taking a Sharpie to an offending apostrophe.
I’m glad there are other grammar vigilantes out there.
that seems like an exhausting hobby. misplaced apostrophes bother me, but not enough that i would accost people in their place of business and carry white out with me to correct them.
I attended the show last night (4/13) in Minneapolis and I have a message for Glen…
The photographer’s name is spelled: Burtynsky
Great show. It was probably the most enjoyable show of any kind I’ve been to in 10 years. Thanks.
Heheh. I’ve got a similar grammar/typo obsession. I also like to take pictures of signs that purposely alter the spelling of a word – to make it cutesy or make it unique to their business, only resulting in creating a really annoying (or possibly offensive) new word. I didn’t have time to stop and photograph it, but on the way to Vegas, just outside of Victorville was a billboard for “Cuntrywide Real Estate”. Um….what?
This is fantastic! Go Jeff!
There used to be a banner hanging outside a video store in Arcata, CA that simply read: “VIDEO’S”.
I was soo tempted to walk in and ask to speak to Mr. or Ms. Video.
There is absolutely NO EXUSE for misplaced (or missing) apostrophes. Unlike something like commas, the rules of apostrophes are easy peasy. I always wonder…does NO employee of a particular place of business notice when there is said typo on their sign, menu, etc.?? And if someone does, do they really think that no patron will notice (or care)? What the heck has happened to professionalism?? Even when I worked at Taco Bell in high school, I checked the dictionary if I was unsure of the spelling of a word that I was writing on a sign or something.
Former English major off her soapbox now.
Come back to Sacramento, Glen!!!!!!!
Oh…oh oh oh.
Grammar nerds. Thank God.
I think if I ever travel to Japan I will have a nervous breakdown.
TEAL…love it.
(yes, it IS an exhausting habit.)
Hmm. Should I be concerned at the fact that when I pulled up that Anguished English page Google asked me if I wanted to take an IQ test? hahaha