As seen from Hwy 101 in Laytonville, CA

Do yo think I'll need to rent a trck to get this stff home?

(There's another one in Laytonville that I decided to leave until our next trip up/down the Redwood Highway... 10 Proofreader Points to anyone who sends in a photo of it before I get to it!)

AWESOME!

From the article "Jacks to remember an old friend" by Ray Hamill, 11/3/2007
link to article

“We’re going to do a special thing for Kenny,” HSU head coach Doug Adkins said. “And we’re going to present his family with a plague.”

It's a sad story, but it's even sadder that the Eureka Reporter, a completely subsidized paper, won't use a little of that money to hire a full-time proofreader. (Not me... I'll never work for a daily again.)

a submission from Holly

"Barmaid! A pint of ale! Just like they drank back in Ranaissance times!" yells Holly from across the dusty crowd of hot, thirsty role players. (She also reported that the other beer banners were spelled correctly.)

Photographed October 7, 2007, at Shasta Dragonwood Renaissance Festival, Anderson, Calif.

a submission from Mike

There's a town near ours named "Fortuna." This is a most unfortunate error. It's not as bad as running a newspaper headline about a Public Hearing and leaving the 'L' out, but it's an expensive mistake and someone is going to have to pay for it. I'm glad we got a picture of it before a new, corrected sign went up. Thanks, Mike!

Ugh. Local TV.

We live in a college town. It's a little school, with a little football team that has been terrible for a long time. They've begun running commercials on TV to drum up interest in their games. I do not believe it was the college that produced the commercials. Here's why:

1) We live in Humboldt County. The school is Humboldt State University. It was displayed as Humbodlt State during the commercial.

2) The graphics displayed during the commercial had Humboldt State playing Western Oregon. The voice-over said HSU was playing Western Washington.

Double ugh.

I now have a favorite holiday.

Screw Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, Valentine's Day and any other holiday created or made into a food- and/or consumer-fest by giant corporations. I'm just bummed that I found out about this two days after it happened. I'll just be extra prepared for next year.

http://www.nationalpunctuationday.com/

Found by Zeke.

This is from our local craigslist. I don't even want to count the errors; I'm so horrified. I'll give a cookie to anyone brave enough to count and document them all.



Perfessional Digital Camera Equipment, - $3700
Date: 2007-08-17, 3:21PM PDT

looking for someone who's in need of great Digital Camera gear. I have a Canon 5D 12mega pixels body. I bought the camera one year ago. Used it for documenting Sri Lanka, Takes amazing photos. comes with grip, extra battery's,& charger, It includs a Canon 70-200 2.8 ultrasonic lens, A Sigma 50mm 2.8 micro lens, A Canon 550 Flash,A Canon speedlite transmitter for making the 550 flash wireless.. Also for sale is a Canon Eos 1D 400.00 dollars, This camera body is in great shape. I used this camera to document Katrina in New Orleans it takes amazing photographs. for the complete package 4,100.00. I won't split the package up.. Want to sell altogether to the right person. If you have any questions please fill free to email me .. I could also send photos of the gear if needed.

from sfgate.com's Day In Pictures

Here's their caption:
"Cawshun! Slo down! Road-painting crews in Kalamazoo, Mich., do not come with spellcheck."

as seen on Broadway in Eureka

Sorry, no picture, we were driving and she was crazy. (Probably)
A woman was carrying a sign over her head that read:


LOVE

PEAEC


At least her heart was in the right place.

from across the pond?

There's been a commercial on local TV lately for a beauty salon having a sale on liter size bottles of shampoo. They flash the word "liter" on the screen 7 times - 4 times it is spelled "liter" and 3 times it is spelled "litre."

What? Half of the commercial was made by a Brit? No, the whole ad was created by under-educated Americans.

A few gems from Zeke...

Zeke is the Compulsive Proofreader's first guest contributor!

This is a farm's 'hook' on HWY 199. It's been up for years, but it's so good. This one actually makes me smile instead of roll my eyes.

As Zeke said, "Burning fur smells bad. I'd go with the Uke."
On second thought, I'd prefer to use fir or eucalyptus in my woodburning stove. Ukeleles may have stinky side effects, too.

Not everything is spelled foneticly.

If you know you're a poor speller, please don't touch the labelmaker.

Come on, nothing rhymes with can?

So... nobody told the marketing department that the stuff was going to come in a can? Oops.

Artist's Statement

By now you should pretty much realize what's going on. I catch things. They just pop out at me; I can't help it.

I'm not claiming to be perfect. I make mistakes, too. It's just that certain things really catch my attention and I feel like sharing them. Maybe the mistakes are funny, or maybe they're common mistakes made because the English language is so incredibly confusing.

You'll probably find typos and grammar discrepancies littered throughout my blog, but that's just how it goes. 99% of the time, I proofread what I've keyed in, but I don't always get everything. I don't follow any style (as in AP or MLA). I'm not THAT anal. :)

At any rate... enjoy.

It's not all stencils and spray paint, folks.

Yep, people can screw up even when they write it out by hand.

The second one is pretty good, too.

From a nearby beauty salon... Do you think Debi did it on purpose?

The first one's a doozy...

I literally slammed on the brakes and pulled over when I saw this one. God bless the inventor of the camera phone.

Surely, these people mean they have "Arabians" for sale, not "Arabs." I'd like to believe it's illiteracy at work here and not prejudice. Phone number has been obscured to protect the offenders.