NO BICYClE PARKING

Alan Belsky, first time caller, long time lowercase Listener, submits this duct taped drama from the heart of Brooklyn.  Discovered at the Branded Saloon on Vanderbilt, the keen observer will recognize early signs of distress with the frayed uppercase i in BICYClE, which was likely first written as a Y.  By the time he got to the second C, the author must have seen the writing on the wall, and resorted to the lowercase L squeeze technique.  Bonus points for the overcompensatory uppercase L in LandLord.

A Touch of ClASS

Phill P-T overcame road rage and managed to capture this photo of the decorated rear windshield of the car belonging to a proud graduate of the ClASS of 2013, likely from my alma mater, the University of Delaware, in Newark, DE.  If UDel faculty had discovered this blunder, though, I believe there may have been reasonable cause to retract his degree.

This is not a new phenomenon, folks.  It is a tried and true tradition. GO HENS!

FlAT FIX

Skooter submits this FlAT FIX photo, taken at the corner of 4th Ave and Prospect Ave here in Brooklyn, and asks the obvious question: do they only fix Italian cars?  Besides the obvious hand painted FlAT FIX on the metal gate, the awning above has both a prominent, correctly typed FLAT FIX, and a subversive, tucked away FlAT FIX on the side.  Very meta that someone needs to fix the FlAT FIX sign.

ClASS on the Glass

Jeff feels that this ClASS of 2011 student at Valley Regional High School in Deep River, CT may have skipped a ClASS or two.

AMBUlETTE

As we hunker down in Brooklyn in preparation for the arrival of Hurricane Irene, emergency teams are gearing up, preparing for the worst.  LOOK OUT! The wind is so strong tonight that it blew the uppercase right off the L in AMBUlETTE.

Found by Father-in-lAW

When I met my now wife Malya, part of my responsibility as a suitor was trying to impress her father.  Now that Malya and I are married, and my father-in-law knows that I am the infamous blogger behind lowercase L-gate, the tables are turned!  After nearly a year of searching, Arthur Kurzweil, achieving one of the greatest highlights of his modest career, finally discovered a Class A lowercase L, and it was closer to home than he could have imagined.  Residents of Great Neck, NY might get lost on their way to Century Inc. at 33 ARRANDAlE AVE.  Perhaps for the better.

AUTO SAlE

Sheila thought that Cortez Auto Sales Inc. got away with it this time, by slipping in a little foot on the otherwise lowercase L in WWW.CORTEZAUTOSAlE.COM. But look again, and you'll see that they remain guilty as charged in the next line down with their abbreviated TElS.

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.

Car 4 SAlE

Times are tough, and people are resorting to selling their worldly possessions just to get by. Allison A. spotted this one in Washington DC, where apparently times are so tough, the car owner was forced to substitute the number 4 for FOR, and went with the lowercase L instead of the uppercase, in a futile attempt to save window space and paint, resulting in the ultra-compact "4 SAlE" sign. But I'm not buying it.

ROYAL FlUSH

Nothing beats a ROYAL FlUSH, except when it's written that way on the back of a van belonging to sewer and drain cleaning company that writes the name of their company this way. Thanks, John, for sending in this great photo found in Spring Lake, Michigan.

TIllMAN

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.

Put 'em on the glass, GIRl!

Lowercase L reader Dave found this rear window message to a lucky Birthday GIRl in Jonesboro, Arkansas. This one is certainly not a case of trying to save space ... just look at that extra-wide exclamation mark!!!

AllSTATE the mission, present your submission

I am pleased to present the first submission from a lowercase L reader! Sean F. spotted this AllSTATE Painting truck while stuck in traffic on his way from NYC to Canada. What makes this example particularly special is that this is a company's official logo, presumably designed on a computer with mechanically printed fonts, not handwritten like most lowercase L's on this site. Not to be confused with Allstate Insurance Company, whose logo only has a capital A and the rest are lowercase letters, AllSTATE Painting seems to be in a state of confusion when it comes to consistent letter styling. With brush technique like that, I'm not sure if I would trust these fellows to paint my house. I'm worried they would paint the vertical side moldings on the windows, but forget the bottom horizontal molding.

On a side note, it is interesting how they got such a good toll-free phone number (1-800-PAINT-01), but what's up with that crappy web address?