What kind of a sign is it, you ask? Well here it is:
Looks like an ordinary caution sign, right? NO. Do you see what’s wrong with it? It’s irritating but comical. Since encountering this sign, I don’t say the word “pedestrian” the correct way; instead, I pronounce it “pe-des-TER-ian” just like the sign says. Funny how as I’m typing the word incorrectly for this blog entry, the computer is even annoyed by this spelling and is attempting to correct the word on its own heehee!
This morning as we ordered our americanos at this espresso stand, Bear decided to heckle the barista about the sign.
Bear: What’s a pedesterian?
Barista: Huh?
Bear: What’s a pedesterian? Is it some new religious movement or something?
He points to the “Pedesterian Crossing” sign.
The barista still seemed a bit confused, so we explained the misspelled sign to her and how we always laugh at the sign every time we’re there to get coffee.
She started to laugh and replied she had never noticed that the sign was spelled incorrectly (?!? I thought to myself) and thanked us for making her day. I’m glad the tattooed barista had a sense of humour :)
Sometimes I have the urge to sneak up on the sign in the middle of the night, armed with a Sharpie and X off the “E” that shouldn’t be.
I’m not saying I’m the perfect speller, but when I see signs that people have paid to have made by a sign company, it irks me that they’re spelled incorrectly. Don’t they spell check or proof them? Or perhaps the purchaser of a sign misspells the word on their order form, do the sign makers just follow the instructions to the T and not bother correcting it even if they know it’s wrong? Other signs that annoy me are ones that say something like “Open Sunday’s” when unnecessary apostrophes are added to days of the week. Signs have gone apostrophe crazy, adding them in places that shouldn’t be. That bugs me. Signs that interchangeably use “your” and “you’re” are a close second.
This list I’m sure, goes on.
The worst part is when you see a misspelled word on a sign, and pause for that brief moment and wonder, “have I been misspelling ______ all these years?” then come to your senses and realize it’s the sign, not you, that is incorrect – I hate when I do that!
So what are some kooky signs you’ve seen around your town?
8 comments:
Our local newspaper once ran a photo of a stop sign painted on the street. Apparently, none of the highway workers realized that stop wasn't spelled s-o-t-p!
I have seen a few down town here, I can't remember which ones, but the mom and pop places have some good ones.
I'm last person to talk about careless spelling/punctuation, but when I catch mistakes on signs that are supposed to be professional, it drives me nuts. I haven't seen any glaring sign errors around here, but a local bakery has this on their menu.
Fresh Braked Bread
The one that made me the most uncomfortable was on a Chinese take-out menu for an authentic Chinese restaurant. It said "Fwee Delivery". I kid you not. My husband and I didn't know if we should say something to spare the owners, or if it was a joke. A month later it was corrected and I felt terrible for not pointing it out.
The corner store has a huge sign that says that they take credict cards.
It wasn't a sign, but it's similar. When I worked email support, this guy emailed us bragging that he was a highly educated man and he knew lawyers and that he was going to report us to the Better Business Burro...
hee-haw! =D
Oh yeah, and Seth got a call from a guy trying to order new cartridges for the company's printer. The guy was trying to strike up a conversation and said "I know that we already have these in stock, but I like to act prophylactically." ( instead of proactively ) I laugh myself silly to this day over that!
A street sign in our neighborhood was mismarked "Long Fellow" for several months before anyone bothered to get it changed, and in the same neighborhood, for at least 15 years, "Hemingway" has been misspelled "Hemmingway", and NO ONE noticed until my teenaged daughter pointed it out this spring.
We have a fast food chicken place that has an "especial" that they run every Monday.
Yes, it is Texas, and yes, more people speak Espanol here than Ingles.
Ummm. About my previous comment. That's "Long Fellow" with a space.
Hello...I am coming out from behind the "blog bushes" to add to the comments of poor English. I give a bit of slack to people who have English as a second, and sometimes third, language. However, when they pick up the poor skills of Americans who should know better...for instance, "strawberry 4 sales". With text messaging, emails, IM, etc., I understand about shortening and using a new shorthand of language, but there's a limit.
Well, that's all the ranting I'm going to do...from one knitter of KVVS to another.
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