RAISE PlOW again

Friend and frequent flyer, Paul Berger, so impressed with my soaring career as a niche blogger that he named his first born child Lowercase EllA in honor of this blog, submits the above iPhone snapshot from the corner of East 47th Street and Lexington Avenue in Manhattan.  This RAISE PlOW sign, which is clearly the work of the same sign bandit who authored this very notice on the Upper West Side, as reported by sweetheart Malya K, may raise more than plows.  It also raises eyebrows, suspicion, and questions, like, "Who supervises the proper use of uppercase and lowercase L's in this city?" and "Why is my plow all screwed up after driving down East 47th Street by Lexington Avenue?"  And, "What is a piow?"

A SIMPlE mistake

Here in Park Slope, Brooklyn, folks take their coffee seriously.  Which is why I was so surprised to find this SIMPlE SYRUP dispenser at Ozzie's Coffee on 7th Ave.  Were I not such a rational man, I might assume this flavored additive was the bottled essence of simulated pie.  But that would be RIDICULOUS!

CHIllI

Iwan from Caernarfon reports to lowercaseL with this QUADRUPLE-l Tale of Wales:

Was having a pint on Saturday at one my favourite local pubs, Y Bachgen Du in Caernarfon (in north Wales), when I noticed their exciting new menu on the wall.

Had been drinking all day to celebrate Wales winnning the Triple Crown in the 6 Nations rugby tournament... so I took a snap to make sure they really were selling CHIllI (with steamed rice).

Wasn't brave enough to try any - I fancied a saiad myself, but as you can see they only did salads. Ended up having some chips. Very nice they were too.

Nice try, ye olde Tafarn, but the dotted uppercase i's don't help. I expect this sort of nonsense from CHIlE, but from WAlES? Seriously, you are tarnishing the reputation of the BlACK BOY INN.

FISH FIllET

Okay, I am officially starting to believe there is an actual conspiracy involved with the apparent lack of uppercase L's in the readerboard letter industry.  Discovered by Dean in Cincinnati, Ohio, we see that Wendy's have not only substituted uppercase i's for the L's in the triple-l PREMIUM FISH FIllET — which Dean admits was not all that great — but they've resorted to using UPSIDE DOWN 7's for uppercase L's on the flip side!

Do these readerboard letter kits come with zero L's?  Are the uppercase L's so rare or highly prized that people steal them?  At what price does REA7 VA7UE come when the sanctity of properly used uppercase L's is so violated?

An ORIGINAl Find

I'm usually skeptical about the DVDs for sale on the sidewalks of Manhattan, as they're almost always illegal bootleg copies.  But these professionally crafted cardboard signs for ORIGINAl DVD'S ease my mind: I can safely assume that everything on that table is not at all original.

The apostrophe in DVD'S is also a bit of a turnoff.

BlEND

Lara K. returns with a new and astonishing lowercase L discovery at a Starbucks in Washington, DC, where the ANNiVERSARY BlEND reads almost good in Spanish, like bieno.

SAlAD

Gina C. from Savannah, GA, found the FRESH SAlMON SALAD and SHRIMP SAlAD to be quite special in TODAY'S SPECIAl'S, which also qualifies as an apostrophe catastrophe as well.  The name of the restaurant is Zunzi's, in case you want to avoid it.

Teenage Mutant Ninja TURTlES

Matt G. discovered this double-L SCROll key in the 1994 Season 8 episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles titled "Enter Krakus". It looks like it might be a case of the squeeze, but Matt believes this may be a symptom of a larger Engrish problem, as the cartoons and lettering are all produced overseas. Here's another example from the 1993 Season 7 episode, a store sign for TElEVISIONS in "The Starchild":

Heroes in a HAlF-L!

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.