EEK, A TYPO!

The Atlantic: Fastest-Shrinking Jobs

noreply@blogger.com (K. Y.) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:24:00 +0000

Today, The Atlantic presented a slideshow on "America's 10 Fastest-Growing (and Fastest-Shrinking) Jobs," based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics' latest employment projections.

Although "copy editor" and "proofreader" did not make the BLS report, they just might top the list of shrinking jobs at The Atlantic, along with "word processor" and "typist."

How did this happen? The following slide provides a clue.

The "Bad Idea" Dept.: Semen & Fasting

noreply@blogger.com (K. Y.) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 01:01:00 +0000

I lost my appetite. Hey, it worked!

During a routine checkup at my doctor's office, I spotted this bizarre label on the wall files.

SEMEN & FASTING

When I asked the nurse about it, she said that the staff had combined unrelated files for space reasons.

Yes, but . . . these two?

Comments are now open for smart-ass remarks.

Defense Nutrition: No Deal!

noreply@blogger.com (K. Y.) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 18:28:00 +0000

Ooooo, a special offer on Organic Warrior Whey from Defense Nutrition!

Get 5 Organic Whey Warrior Containers for the Price of 5 (a $29.95 value).

Wait, how much do I save if I buy ten for the price of ten?! Just teasing, DN. Your products are hands-down superior to the rest, especially the Whey Chocolate bars.

Hyland's: How Many Pills Do You Take?

noreply@blogger.com (K. Y.) — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 01:04:00 +0000

Oh, those directions are just a formality. Don't tell me you're reading it!

Here's a curious label from Hyland's, maker of homeopathic goodies. Pop quiz: How many tablets does it indicate for you to take if you are 13? How about 6?

Adults & Children ages 6 - 12: 4 tablets.

Children ages 1 - 6: 2 tablets.

All right, let's take a closer look.

Under 1: No tabwets for cute widdle babies.
1 to 5: Two tablets. Yes, dear, it's like candy.
6: Two or four tablets. Up to you. Don't fuck this up.
7 to 12: Four tablets.
13 to 17: Take a hike.
18 or older: Four tablets.

What happened? Why were 13- to 17-year-olds left out? They're not adults, last time I checked the laws in this country. And seeing how Hyland's isn't being all too picky about details, why not start the four-tablet instruction at age 7 so 6 isn't straddling two categories? Oh, I get it. *COUGH*unregulatednaturalremedies*COUGH*

Whole Foods Market: Looking for a Proofreader?

noreply@blogger.com (K. Y.) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 00:33:00 +0000

We understand. Of course there's no time to proofread if you spend 4 hours looking for barbecue-grill clip art.

Welcome to the Fourth of July edition, brought to you by Whole Foods Market!

ITS GRILLIN TIME

Hmm . . . why does this sign look funny. Oh, right, because it's wrong.

In elementary school, you learn about apostrophes and how they can act as substitutes for missing letters.

IT IS GRILLING TIME

IT'S GRILLIN' TIME

How did this sign even make it all the way to the display stage? Unless the same person was responsible for the concept, copy, design, production, approval, printing, mounting, and display, it means that an entire team of Whole Foods employees conspired to put out crap work. That's quite a lot of people who don't give a shit. Well done!

Time Magazine: The Unedited Version

noreply@blogger.com (K. Y.) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 22:47:00 +0000

I stopped reading this semi-interesting online article from Time magazine because my high-maintenance brain got tripped up by several glaring errors.

WTF, Time?

• care cost her roughly 20,000

Twenty thousand what?

• refuse to accept women passengers

It's "female passengers." Sexist language is so tired.

• Liu Li goes to the Punete Hill Mall

It's "Puente Hills Mall." (I've loitered there.) Don't be afraid to look shit up, Time.

What's with the low standards? If I wanted to consume unsubstantiated crap, there's this thing called "Fox News."

And really, enough with using "women" or "woman" as a modifier. The adjective is "female." You don't say "men passengers"; it's "male passengers" and "female passengers."

I would hope that a publication of Time's stature would know better, be better, try harder. How disappointing.

Goofy Asian Products

noreply@blogger.com (K. Y.) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 18:43:00 +0000

Here are some of my favorite photos of goofy Asian products from my travels, and by "travels," I mean around the Los Angeles area.

One of the many perks of being an American of Asian descent is the freedom to point and laugh at Asian stuff with no compunction. (For the record, I prefer "American of Asian descent" over "Asian American" or "American-Born Chinese." It's like saying "person who is deaf" instead of "deaf person.") Oh, so serious! Let's move on . . .

These split-toe sneakers are supposedly all the rage in Japan. Well, there, sure.

I don't see double calories, only double happiness.

Bear head = cute. Duck face = cute. Combo = fodder for nightmares.

"Essence of Chicken Drink" probably sounds magical in Chinese. In English, not so much.

Oh, over so soon! I know. It's a sign that I don't go shopping in brick-and-mortar stores often enough. If you have some pictures of your own, send them in!

Arrowhead Mills: How to Double Your Sales

noreply@blogger.com (K. Y.) — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 05:00:00 +0000

Wheat-free and hyphen-free.

No wonder it turned out a little dry.

This spectacular error brought to you by Arrowhead Mills' Organic Wheat Free 7 Grain Hot Cereal.

There's not much more to add, except that even with this freakish proportion of cereal, it still tasted delicious. This wheat-free version isn't available anymore, probably because people ate it up twice as fast and now nothing is left.

Ancient Typo from Italy Chiseled in Marble

noreply@blogger.com (K. Y.) — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 13:00:00 +0000

What's Italian for "D'oh"?

I guess those ancient Romans ran out of Wite-Out. Isn't this method of correcting mistakes just awesome? Better than a wastebasket full of discarded marble.

Milk: Tasty Treats at an Unbelievable Price (Because It's Wrong)

noreply@blogger.com (K. Y.) — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 05:31:00 +0000

I'll take three hundred, please. Sure, I can wait.

During your next post-dinner stop at Milk, indulge yourself with tantalizing frozen treats and baked goods while this dessert shop indulges your sense of humor.

And the next time a "content vs. design" debate crops up, you know which side you're on.

Whole Foods Market: The Secret to High Profits

noreply@blogger.com (K. Y.) — Mon, 30 May 2011 12:55:00 +0000

Act fast before you have to pay less!

Looks like the sale's over, but you can still give Whole Foods Market your two cents.

Brodmann: A (Piano) Lesson on Not Looking Away at the Last Second

noreply@blogger.com (K. Y.) — Fri, 27 May 2011 12:55:00 +0000

It was on sale.

This Brodmann piano sounds great, so if you close your eyes when you play and you're looking for an amazing deal, you're in luck!

Taco Bell: Since You're Not Watching Your Weight . . .

noreply@blogger.com (K. Y.) — Wed, 25 May 2011 12:55:00 +0000

DANGER ZONE!

Maybe Taco Bell figured that it's more cost-effective to throw up a few signs than design a space properly. Don't move, you're gonna . . . aww . . . you should've read the signs.

Relax the Back: It Was Relaxed Until You Saw This

noreply@blogger.com (K. Y.) — Mon, 23 May 2011 12:55:00 +0000

Something else looks too relaxed.

Your back was relaxed until you saw this misspelling. Relax the Back is in cahoots with your candy-giving dentist.

Staples: Customer Service Ain't What It Used to Be

noreply@blogger.com (K. Y.) — Sat, 21 May 2011 18:19:00 +0000

Of course that was easy. It's harder to do things right.

Staples meant "For us to give great customer service . . ." Somebody didn't get their knuckles rapped by a caring English teacher, and now look.

Metropark: Is This Why You're Going Out of Business?

noreply@blogger.com (K. Y.) — Fri, 13 May 2011 18:51:00 +0000

Don't spend too much of your spare time wondering how this happened. No, stop!

Or was the proofreading budget the first to get cut? Sorry, Metropark . . . I'll always have your T-shirts. And that jewel-encrusted necklace with gems falling off.

Typo Blog Sputters Back to Life

noreply@blogger.com (K. Y.) — Fri, 13 May 2011 18:46:00 +0000

Aaaaaaand we're back!

Although Eek, A Typo! has been active on Facebook, Twitter, and Twitpic since we abandoned the blog format, we decided to revive it in its home base and start sharing typo pictures from our immense backlog. It's more than a decluttering project: Our goal is to educate as well as perpetuate sotto voce chuckles.

We hope you enjoy our weekly posts of original typo encounters and continue to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more links and conversations in the typo/language community.

First up, a typo from a company that we just learned is going out of business. (When we said "backlog," we weren't joking.)

Eek, A Typo! is on Facebook (like the rest of the world)

noreply@blogger.com (K. Y.) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 17:54:00 +0000

Just a heads-up: Eek, A Typo! is active on Facebook and Twitter. On the Facebook fan page, you can post your own typos! Meanwhile, I'll try to clean up this half-assed site, maybe migrate it to a real domain! Woohoo! See you around.

I'm in love

noreply@blogger.com (K. Y.) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 03:32:00 +0000

Righting Wrong Writing

The founder of the Typo Eradication Advancement League (TEAL), Deck spent much of last year on the 2008 Typo Hunt Across America, a correctional odyssey that has taken him and an assortment of friends from coast to coast in a 1997 Nissan, righting wrong writing on signs as small as bulletin board notices and as big as billboards.

(Technorati link: typos)

R.I.P.

noreply@blogger.com (K. Y.) — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 22:23:00 +0000

Thousands of hyphens perish as English marches on

"People are not confident about using hyphens anymore, they're not really sure what they are for," said Angus Stevenson, editor of the Shorter OED, the sixth edition of which was published this week. Another factor in the hyphen's demise is designers' distaste for its ungainly horizontal bulk between words. "Printed writing is very much design-led these days in adverts and Web sites, and people feel that hyphens mess up the look of a nice bit of typography," he said. "The hyphen is seen as messy looking and old-fashioned."

(Technorati link: hyphens)

You've got to be kidding me.

noreply@blogger.com (K. Y.) — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 16:39:00 +0000

Colleges seek 'authenticity' in hopefuls

If there's a sign of the times in college admissions, it may be this: Steven Roy Goodman, an independent college counselor, tells clients to make a small mistake somewhere in their application — on purpose.

(Technorati link: college)

No I in team either

noreply@blogger.com (K. Y.) — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 16:08:00 +0000

"NIT T-shirt not worthy of champions" (Sports Illustrated):

West Virginia may have won the National Invitation Tournament, but the Mountaineers' commemorative T-shirts are less than championship material. They contain a misspelling. The "West Virginia" printed on the shirts players wore after winning the NIT title with a 78-73 victory over Clemson on Thursday night is missing the last "i" in "Virginia."

(Technorati link: basketball)

Hapy Valntine's Dy

noreply@blogger.com (K. Y.) — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 17:55:00 +0000

Do not tell me that the stem is an L.

Thanks to Kim S. for the tip!

(Technorati link: Google)

Nobody's watching

noreply@blogger.com (K. Y.) — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 17:42:00 +0000

Today's Variety reports:

A Daytime Emmy snafu left National Academy of Arts & Sciences officials scrambling Monday to alert voters to a program ballot that mistakenly left off the talkshow category.

I'm not sure which is worse: NARAS's embarrassing omission or Variety's insistence on changing the spelling of talk show.

(Technorati link: Emmys)

Dear NBC . . .

noreply@blogger.com (K. Y.) — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 19:18:00 +0000

From NBC4:

(Technorati link: NBC)