Tuesday, June 25, 2013

This Disturb's Me

So I recently saw this at a truck stop in Iowa, Louisiana.  It's a place we've never been to before, so I went in to check it out, walk around the store a bit, hit the bathroom.  When I saw this, I turned right back around and went out to the truck to get my phone to take a picture.
This kind of stuff does my head in.  I'm actually afraid it might explode when I see something like this.  I often have to look away, collect myself, look back, feel my head get all explode-y like and then look away again so I don't have an aneurism.

It reminded me of a sign I saw on the interstate just a few nights before, advertising some adult toy store that said - Passion's Adult Toys and Books - or something to that effect.  The thing that caught my eye was the Passion's part.  Unless the person/entity that owns the store is named Passion, the billboard is wrong.

I saw this one a few months back in a hotel in Las Vegas.  It has two mistakes.  First, "Sunday's" is wrong.  So so wrong.  Second, the word Black Jack should be Blackjack.  It's one word people, not a pirate.


What I think bothers me the most about these kinds of mistakes, is that no one fixes them. 

I understand people make mistakes (um, other people that is).  I understand a typo in a text or an email or even, the horror, a blog post.  But I don't understand a spelling error on a sign in a business, a poster in a major hotel, a permanent sign with molded letters that had to be screwed into a wall, or a billboard.

It screams of incompetence and apathy.

If you think about it, it's got to be passed along through several people before it gets to the point where it's displayed in public, right?

The person who wrote it.  Didn't notice.

That person's boss.  Didn't notice.

The person who created the poster.  Didn't notice.

The person who printed the poster.  Didn't notice.

The person who made the sign.  Didn't notice.

The person who erected the sign.  Didn't notice.

The person who took the order for the poster/sign/billboard.  Didn't notice.

The person who painted the billboard.  Didn't notice.

The person who put up the billboard.  Didn't notice.

The crew that helped the person who put up the billboard.  Didn't notice.

The person who approved the project once it was completed.  Didn't notice.

I don't understand how someone can step back, look at their work, and say "Looks good."

These photos just show two examples I caught on film.  But it's everywhere.  And I don't know how people work in these places, and how managers manage these places, and they just don't do anything about it.

It's seriously why we're 75 millionth in education in the world.  There are a LOT of stupid people in this country.

And I hate when people give ME shit for pointing it out.  Really?? 

To those people, I say this:



Courtesy of Explosm.net
 
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
2012: Not Sure The Money Will Follow
2011: Trucking Al Fresco
2010: 3000 Miles To Squidland
2009: It Could Be Africa If It Weren’t For The Schlitterhahn
2008: How To Ace A Job Interview
2007: Diver Down
2006: Day Tripping
2005: Nipple Rock

3 comments:

scott said...

I have to admit...I didn't see the problem at first. I thought you were upset the store wouldn't let the general public into that room. Funny how the mind works...there's a show on TV called Brain Games all about the simple things your mind misses.

Belledog said...

Yeah, drives me nuts on mailboxes too. The Anderson's. Uh huh.

What's starting to bother me even more? Comma creep.

Have you noticed it? For example, a lonely old person is now likely to be a lonely, old person.

Will start collecting the most egregious examples.

This has been going on for about a year plus, and I wonder if there is some (unnecessary) new rule in a copyediting guide.

The creeping comma is working its way into New York Times stories.

It's already prevalent in The Washington Post, but I am assuming that paper fired most of its editors eons ago. They were running online stories about Paul Deen yesterday. For hours.

Plus, candidates lose elections they weren't even running in. The Post had headline with a Virginia lt. governor candidate losing the attorney general's race up, also for hours.

Low turnout election, but you don't want your newspaper editor to be MIA too.

Dreamybee said...

I know what you mean-how does something that requires that much time and money slip past everyone who works on it?

I just listened to a "This American Life" podcast about patents (which was much more interesting than it sounds) and there was this whole huge patent infringement case that hinged on one guy's use of an apostrophe "S" in his patent write up. You should have heard him hemming and hawing about "what he meant" by the use of that apostrophe "S". Your head might explode from wanting to slap this guy if you listen to it, but if you're interested, here's the link. http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/496/when-patents-attack-part-two