BlACK WINE

And the national readerboard letter shortage continues!

Jeremy D. invites you to come hear the BlACK WINE BAND perform LIVE at The Muse Lounge in his hometown of Eugene, Oregon, maybe even stay at the HIlTON if you're up late into the night, unable to drive, intoxicated from drinking in all that fine BlACK WINE.

Remember, you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.

THIS PlACE IS ClEAN

An Oddly Specific sign — that should probably also be on Passive Aggressive Notes if it isn't already — is welcome here on the lowercase L blog, as well.  "NOTICE HOW THIS PlACE IS ClEAN. KEEP IT THAT WAY!!"  Submitted by Jeremy D., I am impressed that the author of the sign at least did not mistakenly substitute your for you're in "I'll RAPE ya when you're Asleep ..."

HALF SAlMON

Bright Oak Meats may be known for their famous jerky, as is evident by their jerky display on this Springfield, Oregon roadside sign, photographed by regular contributor Jeremy D.  Are they referring to a HALF SAlMON fillet, or lopping off half of the letter L when spelling SAlMON?  I never thought I'd say this, but I think I'll play it safe and go with the rabbits instead.

AlTAIR the past

Past contributor and Macintosh fan, Jeremy D., checked a book out of the library, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and the Personal Computer, by Donald B. Lemke, to teach his kids about the origins of Apple.  Much to his surprise, he found a very prominent and misleading lowercase L in an illustrated panel about the MITS AlTAIR 8800 Computer.  Unless you have a degree in FORTRAN or happen to know the complete history of computers, you have no way of knowing that the illustrated computer isn't an Aitair.  I decided to give the artist the benefit of the doubt, thinking maybe he was simply reproducing an error as printed on the actual ALTAIR 8800 computers.  So I looked it up, and sure enough, as proven on the cover of this January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics, prominently featuring the ALTAIR 8800 with an uppercase L, there is no doubt that the artist is, in fact, insane.

VEGETABlES

It's got a lot of glare, but click to zoom in and you'll see what caught Jeremy D's eye at this Chinese market in Springfield, Oregon. It's enough to make you want to forget to eat your VEGETABlES.

L in PRINT Magazine

If you happened to catch the November/December 2007 issue of PRINT Magazine — you can't miss it, I just received my complimentary copy in the mail today ... it's HUGE! — you might notice that lowercase L, among other "Strunk and White crowd" blogs, has been noted in the Obsessions section on page 298.

Thanks to Caitlin Dover of PRINT Magazine, and Jeremy D. for his excellent lowercase L photo.

We've got ClEARANCE, Clarence

Another submission from contributor, Jeremy D., in Springfield, Oregon, this Fred Meyer" marquee is proof that the lowercase L phenomenon can manifest itself in formats other than handwriting. While it is unclear whether the sign master had run out of uppercase L's, we can exclude the possibility that this violation was a result of letter ClEARANCE, as there is plenty of space on both sides of the text. Surprisingly, I couldn't find any information about this on the Fred Meyer FAQs web page, but if you would like to take a role in saving humanity, put down your global warming petitions and leave a comment for Fred Meyer, letting him know how poorly this insane signage reflects on his business.