Pages Tagged “Category: You Must be Mistaken”
Blog Posts
- Frogging Things Up
Reptiles! Reptiles! Reptiles! Okay, okay, we’ll let some amphibians in too. As a treat. (Billboard spotted while walking around last week.)
- DS…What?
Amusing truncation of the day: “Daylight Savings Tin” I like the idea of a tin box you can keep daylight in!
- Waking Up is Hard to Do (PC Edition)
Always nice to be greeted by this unlock screen: Ever since upgrading to the latest NVIDIA driver, my Linux system has had a weird quirk with resuming from suspend/hibernate. All the applications and services that were running pick up right where I left them, but anything drawn by Gnome shell — including the unlock screen, […]
- Have You Confused Your iNat Lately?
I confused the iNaturalist identification AI with some random snapshots from a trip up into the mountains a few years back. Normally it’s pretty good at narrowing things down to a family or genus. In this case, I was aiming for scenery and family snapshots at the time, so they weren’t exactly ideal for plant […]
- Bicycles. Uh-huh.
Ever feel like recaptcha is just trolling you?
- Poor Substitute
To be honest, I wasn’t expecting to find isopropyl alcohol in stock, but the “related” results are…questionable.
- What the fork?
Trash can with sign: “Please Don’t Throw the Utensils.” So…did they have trouble with that one guy from Mystery Men or something?
- They’ve Got the Moves!
(Spotted a few weeks ago at Target. I’m going to have to check whether they’ve fixed the sign the next time I’m there.)
- Wait, why does the smoke detector need orange juice?
I wanted to know why my smoke detector said not to use a specific brand…but I found that auto-complete has some odd ideas of what smoke detectors need.
- Melon Mania…or Merely Monochrome?
I don’t think they really need the guide to all those different types of melons right now.
- By Grabthar’s Hammer, what a savings
Gee, serious discount there…🙄
- Voit! (Egad!)
I’ve never understood the tendency to write in all-caps except for the letter L, the one letter whose lower case looks exactly like another letter’s upper-case. But it’s surprisingly common. Fortunately I don’t think anyone’s going to pull a “Cancel that, it says HELF” on this warning sign!
- One of these things is not like the others
I think one of those DVDs might be misplaced… Update: Two weeks later I was shopping at the same store, and the woman in front of me in the checkout line was buying (among other things) a Pretty Woman DVD. I had to wonder if it was the same box.
- An “Oustanding” Design
Yeah, I think I know why these stickers ended up at the dollar store.
- Re-Granding?
So I guess this is a re-big, or re-elaborate, or re-extravagant event? Or I suppose they might mean “grand re-opening,” but really, they ought to say so…
- Wait, What’s “Groung” Level?
Hazards of font choice in a parking garage sign.
- This Hurt to Read
I saw this sign in a coffee shop the other day. Honestly, the misspelling of Dr. Seuss’ name is more painful than the misspelling of nonsense.
- Wait, FOUR flavors? Shouldn’t that be a Chocolate Quadrilemma?
Chocolate Dilemma cheesecake?
- Scarriest Place on Earth?
Wait, the Happiest Place on Earth got…Scarrier? Disneyland really needs a proofreader (a proffreader?) for their Halloween parking signs.
- Lick This Button
Wired suggests that iOS 7’s new style will make apps easier to develop, because developers no longer need to know how bounce light off a…lickable button?
- Curse Thee, Auto-Correct!
Forget the infinite monkeys. My phone had some trouble figuring out that I wanted to write “Shakespeare” on its virtual keyboard.
- “Pumkin” Seeds
A labeling error put me in mind of the educational videos my son’s been viewing, and the “No, I don’t want that!” meme.
- Vampires, Werewolves, What’s the Difference?
Overheard two small children outside grocery store: “Look, it’s a full moon!” “That means the vampires are gonna come out!”
- Gooey Steak?
Double truncation failure. Steak is good when…A. With shrimp. B. On the 2 for $20 men. C. When isn’t steak goo?
- Back to Basics???
You keep using that phrase. I do not think it means what you think it means.
- Sent From My…
Maybe “Sent from my iPhone/Droid/whatever” *is* worth including…as a spelling disclaimer. (Sent from my G2)
- Ape Tomatoes
Package: Trader Joe’s Ape Tomatoes
- Free…Raffie?
I’ve never understood why people will use a lower-case L in the middle of an otherwise all-caps phrase.
- Goin’ On a Typo Hunt
Two friends cross the country with a Sharpie pen, correcting grammatical and spelling errors in road and shop signs. And there’s a book.
I may need this.
- Your MOM was Photoshopped!
So, remember this photo of a door labeled “This is not a door?” Last year, someone else sent a picture of the same door to FAIL Blog. Then a week ago, someone submitted mine to Friends of Irony, where Katie spotted it a few days later. Here’s where things get interesting. On both sites, people […]
- For Hanging Dedicates
Coat rack typo: Perfect for laundry, ironing, hanging dedicates to dry..
- Quick, Roll a D16!
Needless to say, the dryer was out of order. I mean, seriously, when was the last time you saw a 16-sided die?
- Are You Sure This is Not A Door?
An odd sign painted on a door. Or, if you believe what it says, not a door.
- Starbuck(’)s Coffee
Someone clearly got Starbucks Coffee confused with Starbuck’s coffee.
- I Have A Preposition For You
- Lost in Translation
All You Can It Sushi
- Critical Miss
This convention press release tells you all about who’s going to be there and what’s going to happen, but leaves out a critical piece of information.
- Translation Fail
Google Translate on a misdirected tech support request in Korean: the product did not change down on the wind. I wonder what that’s about?
- Coming Soon! Or Not.
Clearly there’ve been a few delays. This photo was taken in October. It’s November, and the place still isn’t open.
- Saftey First – En Español
Just to show that English-language sign writers don’t have a monopoly on misspellings, here’s a sign we spotted at a construction site in Irvine: Literally it means “Think Safety” — or it would if it said “Piense seguridad.” The typo makes this the Spanish equivalent of “Saftey First.”
- Backwards
From a food allergy alert released today: Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc., is recalling “Chocolate Covered Almonds” due to undeclared peanuts and “Chocolate Double-Dipped Peanuts” due to undeclared almonds. [emphasis added] I have to wonder: are they just really bad about keeping their ingredients separate, or did they get the labels switched on a […]
- Stupid Scammer Tricks: Forgetting BCC
There’s something delicious about irony in spam. Yesterday, the spamtraps netted an advance fee fraud scam message that started out like this: Let me be honest with you. This information is just for you alone [emphasis added]. I would suggest that you try to fix it instead of making any trouble with it as my […]
- Getting Propositioned
Oddly, the usual deluge of election propaganda hasn’t materialized yet, and the election is less than a week away. While looking through the scanty haul, most of which is focused on a quartet of propositions on Indian gaming, Katie found an intriguing statement: Wait… pubic services? Whoa! And here I thought gambling on tribal lands […]
- Not Exactly…
- Icy?
I rediscovered this photo while looking for the UCI Student Center pic. One of us took it on the way back from a camping trip with UCI’s Campuswide Honors Program in the Angeles National Forest in April 2000. IIRC it was along Angeles Crest Highway. A permanent sign isn’t necessarily the best way to indicate […]
- Politicians in Washington
Yesterday, President Bush reportedly said, “Politicians in Washington shouldn’t be telling generals how to do their job.” I guess he’d better recuse himself from any further military decisions for the rest of his term. Commander in Chief or not, the President of the United States is a politician in Washington. Hmm, maybe he can give […]
- Opera Really Satisfies
The Opera Web Browser is in the news today. First, they’ve just released version 9.20. In addition to the usual security, stability, and compatibility fixes, they’re promoting a new feature called Speed Dial, to make it easier to reach your most-frequently-visited websites. Meanwhile, a recent survey by NetApplications and Surveyware found that while Firefox is […]
- Only in Vegas
You know the routine. We can’t pass up a bizarre image without taking a photo and posting some sort of comment. Not even on vacations. The drive to Las Vegas from southern California is simple: make your way to the 15, head north, and keep going until you get blinded by the neon. The ⅔ […]
- When Typos Attack!
eWeek has an article about URL Tracer, a new tool from Microsoft to keep track of typo-squatting. At one point, the article refers to “typos-quatting.” I’m sure it’ll get fixed soon, but it seems strangely appropriate.
- Confidential? Perhaps not…
I found a 419 scam in the spamtraps that started, in typical fashion, with an all-caps name and address, then the line: HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL REQUESTING What made this funny (aside from the bad grammar) was the fact that the To: line contained over 1,200 addresses! Ah, this is obviously some strange use of the word […]
- Lewis on Libby
Over the last few days, I’ve heard more than one reporter at NPR slip up and refer to Lewis Libby (is it just me, or have people stopped calling him “Scooter” since the indictment?) as Libby Lewis. (On a side note, that name always makes me think of Libby Lawrence.) Well, I think they can […]
- Scool Zone
Bad enough that they misspelled “school,” but “development” as well? You have to wonder who’s managing their signs. (The underscore used in place of a dash bugs me, but not as much.) And yes, this is the same elementary school that was “cloced for repairs” one time we drove past it. I’m seriously reminded of […]
- Those sushi chefs are such cut-ups!
Well, technically, the fish is severed…
- Based on WHICH recent purchases?
I let Amazon.com send me notices every once in a while, just in case something interesting pops up. This qualifies, though not in the way I expected: Based on your recent purchases, we thought you might like to know that you can save up to 65% on summer favorites in men’s, women’s, children’s, and shoes. […]
- Allergen-free? Try again!
Sign at Whole Foods: Allergen-free fish sticks. Okaaay…but what if you’re allergic to fish?
- What it all Mean’s
Katie spotted this example of apostrophe abuse in an office parking lot. The best service mean is…? Statistical analysis of dumpster service? Is there any *ahem* meaning for which this would actually make sense?
- Title goes here
I’ll always remember a line from a play I was in during college. It was an original musical, and the composer couldn’t come up with a good line by the time he had to hand out the scripts, so he filled it in with “Come around and schmoo” just to keep the rhyme in place. […]
- Small parts will be what?
Here’s a candidate for Engrish.com if I ever saw one… except it’s aimed at the US market. This is from the back of a small metal Justice League figurine: OK, I understand what they’re saying, it could break into small parts that could be a choking hazard. But the phrasing is awkward at best, and […]
- 10% of nothing
This is a credit card offer I received today. What’s wrong with this picture? The two offers—10% of your interest returned, and 0% interest—both look great by themselves…but put them together and that 10% looks rather uninteresting.
- Well, the state bird is the Quayle…
The local Ralphs has been remodeling. New tiles, new signs, new carts, everything’s been rearranged—heck, they even have a new logo. So keep in mind that this isn’t a leftover sign, it’s brand new: I’d say Dan Quayle left more of a mark on America than we might think.
- Mailing Mishap
I’ve been getting a lot of what Katie calls “concrete spam” (i.e. junk mail) from charities over the last few months. Eventually I’ll track down who sold my address. But this was an interesting one because they seem to think I’ve gone back to college: What, did my evil psychic twin get a doctorate over […]
- Wow, PHP is older than I thought!
Screenshot of the PHP RSS news feed: Wow, when they said “archive,” they really meant it! 🙂 While SharpReader is the best aggregator I’ve tried for Windows, it does have problems with dates from time to time — sometimes articles will be stamped with the time they were downloaded instead of the time they were […]
- Always proofread carfully
Believe it or not, this is on the front of an elementary school! It kind of reminds me of the “They’re just putting the S in principal” story.
- Cross-platform?
This is from an ad for Comcast cable-modem service that arrived in today’s mail. I almost threw it out, but then I noticed something very odd about the middle picture on the front: Now it may not be obvious at this resolution, so how about a closer look at the corners: Wow – that’s the […]
- Give me an N!
- For the procrastinator in all of us
From an email I got this morning: Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 01:55:22 EDT … Hurry, the clock is ticking on your taxes! Pay your federal taxes with your Discover Card Last I looked, the deadline was yesterday. And while it may technically have still been April 15 here on the west coast when they […]
- May contain articficial coloring
From a can of cherry pie filling:
- Proof that not everyone knows which way is up
- Shooting the Moon
Some idiot is out there taking flash pictures of the eclipse.
- The mind boggles…
From a recent spam: Increase Beast size by 2 cups Guaranteed
- Ouch!
I’m used to people misspelling “phoenix” as “pheonix,” but this one is truly painful: “Hi, How to I make Skins for phenoix?”
- Sorry, sir, we don’t handle those cases.
From a bill for legal services: “Messenger Delivery Fees UPS – CALL TAG – THE RETURN OF RECS FORM DR COLEMAN’S LOST GATOS CA” UPS? Those poor kitties.
- Only 306 Days Left!
Today I got a renewal notice from Network Solutions: Your domain name registrations will begin expiring on Jan 14, 2004. Act now.
- Truly Terrible Typo
Yesterday’s LA Times included a “Parent Reading Guide” sponsored by Verizon and the Reading By 9 program. Amazingly, it included a full-page ad showing the alphabet followed by this catchy headline: Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
- There’s your problem!
A few weeks ago, the floodlight in our entryway went out. This was the first built-in fixture to burn out, so we checked with the apartment office to see whether we should replace it ourselves or ask maintenance do it. They said they’d take care of it. A few days later, the light was still […]
- Check your math
Installing a security fix for Internet Exploder, with a few other items, and I see this gauge: Last I looked, 1.5 was considerably less than half of 9.6. Either their math is really lousy, or they’ve decided to keep the gauge moving even when nothing’s going on.
- Not sure what this was for…
…but if the date is to be believed, I haven’t bought it yet.