Highway Blizzard Catastrophe

Based on the latest weather predictions, we might see a lot of signs like this in Boston tomorrow.


Thanks to my friend Stephanie for sending in this triple error that she spotted on her commute on I-93. Apostrophe catastrophe plus spelling error plus random plural? This may be one of the worst ones ever!

Readers, please be careful driving!

New York Public Transportation Catastrophe

I don't tend to post photos that have been posted elsewhere, but this one, originally posted on Gothamist, was too good not to share.



L.e.s.t.e.r. took this photo and Gothamist used it in its piece about MTA typos.

Thanks to L.e.s.t.e.r., Gothamist, and my friend Marisa for making me aware of New York's typo problem. If New York was able to clean up Times Square, it ought to be able to fix a few pesky grammatical errors.

Clearly I'm in the Wrong Line of Work

Most people think you need to be a lawyer, a psychiatrist, or a high-priced hooker to make more $100 an hour. But according to this sign, you can make more than 400 times that much working at Taco Bell!


It might not be worth it if you have to eat the food, though.

The punctuation in this sign is fine, so it's a little outside this blog's usual scope, but I thought it was a pretty funny mistake.

Thanks to my friend Kurt for sending this photo to me from North Carolina.

Adding Insult to Injury

My brother was visiting a friend in the hospital recently and noticed this sign on the wall:


Boston is home to some of the world's best hospitals, but apparently not the best grammar. I hope my brother's friend's surgeon showed more attention to detail than the writer of this sign.

Thanks, Charlie!

Phishing Scam Catastrophe

Sometimes phishing scam e-mails look pretty convincing, but I don't think very many people will be fooled when they get an e-mail from Bnak of America.


See the "from" field in the above e-mail. Stupid criminals...

Oh, and since this blog is supposed to be about bad punctuation, I'd also like to point out the grammatically incorrect and poorly punctuated sidebar, which says, "If you ignore this message your account has definitely blocked" (no period at the end).

We Couldn't Have Said It Worse

Domicile Furniture, which is a pretty funny name in and of itself, ran a full-page ad in the Chicago Tribune that featured "two wonderfully different types of errors," Winona writes. In the first photo, they add apostrophes to words that are already possessive.



Oh, and if we want to be really picky, that hyphen should be an en-dash. They also don't seem to understand the phrase couldn't have.


And, finally, cutting edge should have a hyphen. Thanks, Winona!

Too Many Republican's and Other Problems

This blog's best contributor, my friend Merry, sent a screenshot of the Pez web site that's littered with errors. This pains her because she's a big fan of Pez dispensers. How many apostrophe catastrophes and other mistakes can you find?


Thanks, Merry!

Who Is Mission?

In New York, I discovered that the Boston Metro isn't the only free paper that's filled with typos. I found a who's/whose error in the New York Metro.


Yes, that's a photo of Michael Phelps' back. You're welcome.

The Redundancy Award for Redundancy

On the way to the beach (again) on Saturday, my friends and I were baffled by a generic ATM that said "ATMS CASH."


The machine doesn't feature a punctuation error; it's just generally bizarre. I guess the problem is that the "S" in "ATM" shouldn't be there. I wanted to take a picture of it without the random guy in it (sorry, random guy!), but he was standing at the ATM for about five minutes, and I just couldn't wait any longer. He must have been confused by the sign, too.

Laundromat Jackpot

I'm going away tomorrow, so I have to do laundry. Luckily, there are laundry facilities in the basement of my apartment. My landlords were even kind enough to put up this helpful sign:


English isn't their first language, so I won't rag on them too much for the apostrophe catastrophe.

I didn't have enough quarters, so I decided to stop at a laundromat on my way home to get change. Clearly, someone forgot to press the shift key when making this sign:


Good thing I wasn't planning on staying very long!

Someone tried to fix this horrendous sign, but he/she forgot the apostrophe:


Oh, check it out! If you bring some guys named Matt, you can wash them here!


And, finally, we have unnecessary quotation marks:


I feel like I hit the jackpot in this laundromat! Let's hope my luck continues in Vegas.

Comcast on Crack

I was flipping back and forth between the Red Sox and Celtics games on Sunday afternoon when I noticed that my TV was telling me that I was watching Tampa Bay vs. Cincinnati.



I'm pretty sure those two teams never play each other except during spring training. Plus, the Sox game was on NESN, which stands for New England Sports Network. NESN broadcasts games featuring the Red Sox, Bruins, and other New England teams. A Tampa Bay vs. Cincinnati match-up would never be shown on NESN. The two teams (Boston and Tampa Bay) were listed correctly at the top of the screen, but the info at the bottom was bizarrely wrong. I know that this error has nothing to do with punctuation, but I'm temporarily expanding this blog's focus to include it.

Go Reds! Um... I mean... Red SOX.

If I Could Turn Back Time

Happy Patriots' Day, everyone! Many New Englanders have today off, including our building manager. He put up this sign in the elevator last week:



There are a couple of missing commas, no period at the end, and an extra space in the phone number, but the biggest problem with this sign is that the writer refers to today as April 21, 2001. For a second, I thought maybe I had entered a time machine instead of an elevator! I don't remember if I had Patriots' Day off in 2001, but I'm certainly at work today.

It's raining / Ooh, baby, it's raining

I was going to buy it, but Rihanna got there first.

As Opposed to Head Halves?

I was shocked to see this sign in a fancy mini-mall between South Station and the Financial District. Perhaps the shop owner is quoting someone who misspelled headquarters?