Melanie of Sammamish, WA writes,I have been reading your blog for quite a while now which has kept me on the lookout for lowercase ls. I didn’t think that I would ever find one… until tonight. I almost caused a traffic accident because I was so excited about the find! I guess the marquee poster decided that this (pictured) would look less weird than HALlOWEEN lOCK IN. I think that I agree.
Lowercase L reader Mandalyn found this fun Halloween Monster Initial Stickers Name Generator that spells your name out using monster picture letters. She noticed that her name was generated as MANDAlYN and notified me immediately. Turns out the L font was the only lowercase letter, for some reason. They've since fixed it, but I was lucky enough to generate this classic lOWERCASE l monster sign before they caught the error. Scary!
The SAlMON didn't bother me so much on this downtown Manhattan menu, since the author at least tried to make the lowercase L taller than the rest of the uppercase letters. But I did have a small problem with the SMAll soup size, once I got past the odd "toDAYS", that is. This SMAll isn't the first, either. Check out the SMAll Chinese take-out, and the SMAll Coffee, too.
This may be a tribute to the late Pat TIllMAN, who left his career as a football player to join the army and fight in the war in Afghanistan. He might be less flattered if he could see how his name was written on the back windshield of this truck that Stephanni in Abilene, TX caught, with the confusing array of long lines that looks like the Roman numeral III. Even the little dot on the i, which seems more like an afterthought, does not help very much.
There's more than just troubled water under the bridge in this fine lowercase L example, found by Nikki at Branch Mouth in San Ignacio, Cayo District of Belize, Central America. PlAYiNG on the Bridge is clearly not allowed, but apparently hiring sign writers with dysgraphia is. The author may have tried to balance the lowercase L with a lowercase i, but it's too little too late.
With the popularity of Facebook apps like Graffiti, it's not surprising that lowercase L's are beginning to surface in our virtual social networks. Submitted by "Gez", this simulated spray painted message to a ClASSY BITCH of a friend is doubly insulting with the neglectful lowercase L.
How can you trust people you meet online, especially if they exhibit carelessness in their usage of lowercase L's?
It's one thing when I find improperly used lowercase L's whilst out and about, but it's another thing when it's right in front of my building. Apparently my neighbor is not aware of the FRAGIlE balance between upper and lower case. I do appreciate that he tried making the lowercase L a bit taller than the adjacent uppercase I and other letters, as well as separating the corrugated cardboard for recycling. But this cardboard message just outside my building is like the bloody horse's head in the bed of my lowercase L world.
Friend, journalist and fellow blogger Paul of Englishman in New York is always trying to impress me because I am his hero in the world of blogging. His previous attempt to enter my lowercase L domain fell flat, but his latest contribution, almost a self-fulfilling prophecy, is quite nice. After his interview with top selling author Tom Clancy, Paul explains:Hey William
If you ever decide to peer into the mind of a Lowercase L perp, I am afraid you may be sorely disappointed. Look what I just did.
I have no idea how it happened. I don't remember ever writing a Lowercase L before in my life. Maybe I have been reading your site too often? Maybe it's contagious?
All I know is that I wrote the uppercase "C" followed by the lowercase "L" with the full intention of continuing in lowercase letters. And yet for some reason my hand insisted on the uppercase.
It threw me so much that I even misspelled "EXPENSES" in the second word.
At some point in the future I am going to find this envelope and wonder who or what CIANCY EXPENCES are. How embarrassing.
Paul
