google.com, pub-0038581670763948, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 My Typo Humour: 01/11/2011 - 01/12/2011

Wednesday 30 November 2011

fine art printing for photographers exhibition quality prin

Whisky, Tango, Foxtrot?

I know, I know. But this is the actual headline.

I came across it while trawling for articles about fine art printing. I still have no idea what the site is about.

I believe it's a blog but, judging by the content, it's been created by a loop-pedalling zombie on acid.


Here's a link to the site, if you dare visit. It's not at all pretty.

Monday 28 November 2011

Friday 25 November 2011

Connecticut man wins election due to typo

Am I being too cynical or could this only happen in America?

James R Butler ran for office but it's his son, James J who's been accidentally elected.


According to all the reports, James J, the son, has no choice but to remain elected whether he likes it or not. His resistance is hindered by the fact that he shares not only the same address but also the same birthday as James R, his father. So, according to the records, JJ is categorically the one who stood for office and therefore becomes the reluctant winner. Imagine how the news must have affected his poor old dad.

Here's the offending section of the ballot paper.


Having been involved with the printing of ballot papers in a previous life, I can virtually guarantee that this could not have happened in the UK. There are simply too many checks and double checks made on every part of each ballot paper to allow an error like this to slip through.

But, to get back to the story, I wonder what JJ was doing when he heard the news that he'd been elected instead of his old man. Playing golf? Supervising the barbie? Casually watching TV?

An old episode of Dallas perhaps?

The one in which we find out who shocked JR.

Wednesday 23 November 2011

I'm On The Road To Nowhere

Hmm. Five Roads Roundabout.


I'm guessing that the fifth road must take you directly to Hogwarts.

Oh, wait. I'm sniggering because there are only four roads. But actually there are only two, surely?

Wizardry abounds.

Monday 21 November 2011

Facebook fiend

Another from the Facebook files. This one comes courtesy of Greg L.

Not for the easily offended.


Tempting as it often may be, I wouldn't stoop to such relentless harassment.

Funny to witness someone else doing it though.

Friday 18 November 2011

Printing error, NI Water? Come off it.

Shame on you, Northern Ireland Water, for blaming your mistake on a printing error.

The picture and text below are taken from an article which appeared in the Belfast Telegraph on 27 October.

Northern Ireland Water is facing another embarrassing blunder after a misprint of its helpline number appeared on leaflets sent to thousands of homes across Northern Ireland.
The new leaflet from the water agency, which provides information about protecting pipes from freezing during the winter, has already caused confusion among some householders trying to ring the helpline.
It provides information on how to protect pipes from freezing, and what to do if your pipes freeze or burst, and forms part of NI Water’s public winter awareness campaign.
Part of the advice is a contact number for its emergency line.
The number given on the inside of the leaflet is missing a digit, and householders trying to use it are met with only a dead line.
A correct version of the helpline number is printed on the back of the flyer.


NI Water has admitted the blunder, but said it won’t be re-issuing the leaflets.
In a statement issued to the Belfast Telegraph, NI Water said the mistake was a 'printing error'.
'This error has been quickly corrected at no extra cost,' it said.
'NI Water would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused with regards this number.'

For the record, the printer (read that as both person and machine) prints only what is set, proofed, read, approved and sent.

What you meant to say, NI Water, is that someone that works for you, either directly or as an agent, made a mistake. Not that the mistake was a printing error.

But you're a corporate. Therefore you naturally pick some anonymous person or machine to blame rather than admitting responsibility yourself. Pah!

Yes, it may have been set incorrectly and it may well have passed through all the internal checks that printers carry out so meticulously. (Just checking, NI Water. You did use a meticulous printer, right?)

But the responsibility for content lies fairly and squarely on the customer or the customer's agent who signs off the final proof.

NI Water. That's you.

Wednesday 16 November 2011

Good marketing begins at home

I managed to salvage this email just as it was disappearing into the black hole I call my spam folder.

It seems to me that this organisation, which is marketing its fantastic, accurately-targeted database, should practise a little navel gazing. I'd be surprised if they come up with much more than fluff.

Click to enlarge

For those that aren't aware, my company is actually 'doing business' in the Printing and Publishing sector.

Unless they're counting the wood used in papermaking.

No. That would almost amount to joined-up thinking.

Sorry, Guideon Fischer of exportmaillist.com

Your database? Monumental fail.

Monday 14 November 2011

With a banjo on my knee

Remember this from 2008? Greg L's latest contribution is an oldie but definitely worth a mention.

For the record, the error was spotted by someone involved with printing.


Interestingly enough, there's no reference to the Council's reaction in the BBC article.

Here's what the Birmingham Post had to say.

Despite the gaffe, council officials have insisted the pamphlet - a second print run of the Recycle: Your Questions Answered - will not be recalled, pulped or reprinted.
The mistake was spotted by Jon Cooper when the leaflet was delivered to his Kings Norton home. The 37-year-old, who works for a Midland packaging firm, said: “I emailed the council last week, after the leaflet came through my door, to draw attention to their mistake.
“I work in the packaging industry and we have to check all our printed materials thoroughly, because if we don’t spot a mistake you can be sure Sainsbury’s or Tesco will, which is why I can’t believe nobody at the council noticed this before the leaflets were sent out.
“I’m a regular visitor to the States, so when I saw that image on the back of it I instantly knew that it was a US city, not Birmingham in the West Midlands, so I 'Googled' it and found it was an image of Birmingham, Alabama.”
Mr Cooper added: “I would have thought the city council would be a bit more bothered about the image that they put out of this Birmingham, especially if it’s going into hundreds of thousands of homes.
“I am sure this was a simple mistake by whoever was asked to find a picture of the city, but who is checking this stuff?”
A city council spokesman claimed there was "no point tinkering with it” and described the offending photo as “a generic skyline picture”.
He added: “The picture on the leaflet is meant to symbolically represent an urban area. Since its first publication last year, the leaflet has been well-received by residents, and is the most requested document to be produced by the Fleet and Waste Management Department.
“Feedback from households has been very positive - the leaflet has achieved its aim of informing citizens about the recycling options, both doorstep and other, that are available to them.
“On a total production run of 720,000 copies, the council has received just one query about the use of a generic skyline picture.”

I wonder if the council spokesman studied at the David Brent Management School. 'A generic skyline picture...meant to symbolically represent an urban area'. Yeah, right. So why not use a photo of Glasgow or Leeds? Or even, dare I suggest, Birmingham? Birmingham, England, that is.

I like the statement that the leaflet 'is the most requested document to be produced by the Fleet and Waste Management Department'. So exactly how many documents does the Department produce? I'm inclined to think that this may well be one of a small number. A very small number indeed.

A very small number such as one, for example.

Apparently, Marketing Birmingham, the agency charged with promoting the city nationally and overseas, declined to comment on the council's case of mistaken identity.

Can't imagine why.

Friday 11 November 2011

Disorientated after extraordinary rendition 2

The second in the Lost In Unusual Translation series.

Thanks once again to Greg L for submitting these gems from engrish.com and chairmanlol.com




Wednesday 9 November 2011

WW2, yes. WWII, OK. But WW11?

Here's Don Krasin.

According to the caption, he fought in - and survived - World War Eleven.


Goodness only knows exactly when World War 11 will take place, but it looks like Don came back through the time machine relatively unscathed as well.

Unless, of course, he's only 18.

Monday 7 November 2011

A klear-kut kase

If this klanger hadn't been raised on Facebook, I wonder when it would have been korrekted.


I like this quote:

This serves as a reminder to all our staff to double-check their work, the Southern Gas spokeswoman added.

Here's hoping the gas-related work they were carrying out was also double-checked.

If not, at least the fire engines won't have far to travel.

Friday 4 November 2011

Tain't what you do, it's the way that you do it

The headline writers at the Washington Post's Express magazine either know exactly what they're doing or may well have suffered a whole omelette on their faces recently.


I have to own up to a degree of naivety with regard to the headline as I hadn't come across this particular meaning of the word taint before. I must lead a very parochial life and the significance was lost on me until I looked it up.

So thank you, Urban Dictionary, for providing some very funny definitions including the least rude of my favourites "tain't one thing nor the other".

Libya Ferrets Out Gadhafi's Taint.

Ooh er, Matron.

Wednesday 2 November 2011

A canny deal in Scotland

Those Scots sure know how to offer a good deal.

Our eagle-eyed Typo Spotter Greg L snapped the fantastic saving to be made on parsley in the Tesco store in Byres Road, Glasgow.

A canny deal indeed.


In fact, a real canny Scottish deal.

As in: Ye cannae see the duffrence.

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