On the PlUS side

Randy C. is on a hot streak, first with his failing fast food find at McDonald's, now with Consumer's Beverage Center up the same street in West Seneca, NY.  Not only can you party with a VAPIETY like it's $19.99 — and like they're also out of uppercase R's — but you can also pick up a PlUS FREE SHIRT.  Reminds me of another pious tee shirt on this blog.

McDONAlDS

Past participant Randy C. from Cheektowaga, NY discovered this McDonald's roadside readerboard with flip side lowercase L offenses.  On one side is a BOWl OF SOUP & WHEAT ROLL, which I half expect to be served by David Bowie.  It is fortunate that they had enough uppercase L's to spell ROLL correctly.

On the other side of the sign is an offer for coffee All DAY EVERY DAY, which technically isn't so bad because the word All can legitimately be spelled with only an uppercase A, but it's worth noting since it's the only non-all-caps word on the board.

I'm almost thoroughly convinced there is a shortage of uppercase L's in the readerboard letter industry, and I'M NOT lOVIN' IT.

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.

GOGGlES

Don't mock us with that smiley face, Public Pool in Williams, Arizona. Confusingly placed lowercase L discoverer, Robin D, doesn't want your stinking GOGGlES anyway. Was there a three-L limit on this sign or something?

BlENDED in

HOT, ICED, OR BlENDED are my choices at The Human Bean espresso drive-up.  Holly J. submits this photo from Roseburg, Oregon.  This could be a crunch case, where lopping off the leg of an uppercase L was the only way to fit the word in the window.  Or it could be the onset of Kahlua madness!

III l's

Not a lowercase L offense at all, I just thought III L's Pizzeria might like to sponsor my blog.

SlOW

Doesn't get much slower than dead.  Not sure if this SlOW sign is referring to traffic or the person who wrote the very same SlOW sign, but this cemetery in Charlottesville, VA, photographed by Scott G. makes me want to speed up to get out of there quicker.

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.

Loss of PlATTER Control

So many choices! The lowercase L in PlATTER almost went unnoticed on the lower right corner of this menu board in front of Santorini Grill, a mediocre Greek restaurant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  But, based on my previous experience with Greek restaurants, I knew I'd find the lowercase L offense eventually.

PlOW

Sweet MAlYA couldn't believe it when she learned she had been passing by this sign, unnoticed, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan nearly every day of the winter ... while going out with Mr. lowercase L himself (me!)  This warning to trucks, advising them to RAISE PlOW, would have been less confusing if the OW — both letters that are the same in both upper and lowercase form — were bottom justified instead of top justified to the lowercase L.  That might explain the metal scraping Malya heard out her window all winter long.