McDONAlD'S

I usually write smart-ass commentary on the lowercase L photos submitted by readers, but in this case Holly Jenson and her programmer friend did fine on their own.

A friend of mine pointed out that, while we might assume that the intended word is "small," it could also very well be "smail" (an electronic mail transport protocol) or "smali" (an assembler for Java on the Android platform), "Java" being, of course, a slang term for coffee. Perhaps the Roseburg MacD's is actually offering up an Egg McMuffin with an embedded Java VM assembler, and for only $4.80! 

 Bonus points for the DOUBlE l! Or, smarties Holly and friend, is that actually binary for 3?

SlAB results

Nothing sounds more appealing than a Fresh HOT SlAB of BABY BACK RIBS Right off THE GRILL, all for just $10.99!  Leslie in Denton, Texas discovered this mouthwatering deal at the local Kroger, where, she explained, you could watch them GRIll the SlAB right in front of you.  I'm going to let those weak L's in GRILL slide because they have hints of uppercase-ness.  But SlAB?  I knew the day would come.

ClASSIC PASTA

Mamma mia! Ben Perry discovered this half baked Fazoli's sign advertising ClASSIC PASTA at the Aurora Mall in Aurora, Colorado. Maybe all the readerboard L's were lost during their infamous All You Can Eat Lasagna and Linguini Buffet of 2012.

SPRING FlING

"I loves me Olive Oyl!" you might hear Popeye say, just before he walks into this olive oil store in Wilson, NY. But he might march out to a different tune after seeing this SPRING FlING chalking.  Which is exactly what contributor Lilit Marcus did, her hands trembling with fear and rage. This also explains the blurry photo of an otherwise pristine example of lowercase L insanity.

THE SAlAD PlACE

Last time, on lowercaseL, an "unknown" commenter offered this tempting teaser:

Go onto Google Maps and check out the corner of Persia and London in San Francisco's Excelsior district. There's a place called THE SAlAD PlACE, whose name appears thusly on a large hand-painted mural. The l's are a carrot and a celery stalk, but methinks that cutesy conceit would have worked far better had they made the other non-initial letters lowercase, too.

So I followed up, and using the free 21st century spying software, I was able to find the offending sign in just a few seconds. Thank you, UNKNOWN lOWERCASE L SOlDIER.

I'm Looking Over a Lowercase ClOVER

Spinning Girl returns, with an explanation:

It's been a while since I have submitted an "l", though I do keep my eyes open. Sometimes slamming on the brakes is just too dangerous... But for this one I was in a slow-moving line at Starbucks in Darien, CT. They have some new brewing system that they keep pushing, called Clover. Luckily the hand written told me to "see over" (Get it? ClOVER?)... And I could indeed see the machine when I looked over the counter. It just looked like a single-batch brewing machine of some kind, nothing to cheer about. Their sign, however, made me turn cartwheels of GlEE.

Look closely at the paper notice below the ClOVER.  They're hiring: someone new to handwrite the chalkboard menus.

Little ITAlY

Found by Matt G. at an Italian restaurant in Cleveland, this lowercase L is truly baffling.  The IMPORTED ITAlIAN BEERS heading makes use of small caps for lowercase letters. You can tell because they are shorter than the uppercase first letter of each word.  That means the lowercase L in ITAlIAN was purposefully typed as an uppercase i!  Maybe it's the beer talking, but I find this beautiful.

Matt also points out that, while most brand names correctly begin with tall uppercase letters, some mysteriously start with small caps, the equivalent of a lowercase letter. Can you find them all?

BlONDE ROAST

John returns to lowercase L with a BlONDE Roast you can buy at Starbucks in Holland, MI.  The BlO prefix reads like the coffee is either organic or very strong.

TACO BEll

Our cop friends at Grammar Police realize that there's more to policing a world of signs than focusing just on grammatical errors.  Sometimes you have to call out penmanship and, in this case, readerboard lettermanship.  This sign for Taco Bell in COlDWATER, MI, advertises tempting 99¢ FlATBREAD CHICKEN SANDWICH, which is, apparently, a plump chicken sandwich after it has been run over by a Fiat.

Little MUSSElS

Brooklyn neighbor, Skooter, believes there may be a very meta lowercase L Conspiracy conspiracy, deeper than I ever would have imagined:

I saw this today at Double Windsor on Prospect Park West in Brooklyn. A few thoughts: didn't they notice the problem with "garlic," when there was the lowercase "l" next to the capital "I"? How come "SPECIALS" is capitalized correctly? Considering this is a literate bar with a nerdy/yuppie clientele in Brownstone Brooklyn, is it at all possible that they did this intentionally in order to bait "lowercase l"?

Skooter makes a good point. Most lowercase L offenders would get SPECIAlS wrong, but that is not the case here.  Instead we are treated to more subtle lowercase L errors as we read on, including MUSSElS, GARlIC (bonus for the lowercase L followed by the uppercase i!), Spicy HEIRlOOM Tomato, Beet SAlAD w/ ARUGUlA, OMElETTE ... a literal buffet of lowercase L's to chose from!  And, impressively, other than the lowercase L's, everything seems to be spelled correctly, even the more exotic words that could easily have been misspelled by even the most highly qualified waitstaff: ARUGUlA, pistachios, Parmesan, and Nueske bacon.

This may be the best example of lowercase L abuse yet.

BlACK MINT

Ozzie's coffeehouse is shutting down on 7th Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn, most likely due to the confusion caused by random lowercase L's that appeared throughout the join, like this pot of BlACK MINT.  It's not about anything else you may have read.

APPlE Dips

Happening upon this sign at a Walmart in Georgia, Laura B. commented, "Ah, fall. The season when I think of eating APPlES. And what's an appie without APPlE DIPS?"

Interestingly, the text "APPlE Dips" itself dips, from left to right.

Obviously the Dips does not refer to the price of APPlE COMPUTER stock, which recently reached an all time high of $400 a share, far from dipping.

COlD Case

Found in a secondhand store in Phoenix, Arizona, Leif Swanson proclaimed, "I would gladly forgive this store owner for the lower-case L in exchange for a COlD drink. It was 118 degrees that day in Phoenix."

Whole Belly ClAMS

Jeff adds to the ClAM COllECTIVE with these OPEN WHOLE BELLY ClAMS, discovered on Boston Post Road in Westbrook, CT. Ironically, Jeff was just there for the Prime RLB.

SMAllS

Anicia found these SMAllS in Pismo Beach, CA for just $2.  She didn't bother to ask about the lARGES.

Speaking of APPlE

It must be APPlE Picking Season.  Following Sunday's APPlE fiasco, long time reader and first time submitter Amanda R. shot two lowercase L's for the price of one.  Discovered on Walton Way in Augusta, GA, this Wendy's has more to offer at the pick up window than just convenience.  TRY A NEW APPlE PECAN SAlAD ... if you dare.  Wendy's?  As in "Wen-dy's readerboard letter manufacturers going to start shipping enough uppercase L's?"

APPlE Sunday

It was a perfectly hot summer Sunday here in Park Slope.  Looping back from the Brooklyn Flea toward home, we stopped at the Farmers Market on 5th Avenue and 4th Street.  Not too surprisingly, we spotted these agriculturally influenced examples of lowercase L's in a plate of GAlA APPlE and HONEY CRISP APPlE.  This twisted play on words hints at an all-American favorite, Apple Pie, rolled into one convenient package that you could put on your iPhone ... There's an APPlE for that!


This is not the first, or second, case of APPlE here in the neighborhood.

METAL GlIDER

Oh, Rimpy, where would the lowercase L blog be without you? This FoodMaxx sign for a METAL GlIDER (TWO SEATER) is likely a "crunch case".  That is, the author tried to fit the entire word within the remaining insufficient space by chopping off the foot of the uppercase L — usually to no avail, as in this instance, with the R way off in the blue border.  The ridiculous lowercase L is even more emphasized by the adjacent uppercase i.  Everyday Low Price may be Guaranteed, but I'd also like assurance of Everyday Lowercase L Guaranteed before I start patronizing this establishment.

lower cake

Not technically a case of lowercase L, but relevant enough to share here.  As mentioned on Boing Boing today, this Cake Wreck is just another demonstration of how the lower case can both cause, and be the result of, anarchy.

We all scream for GARlIC ICE CREAM!

Jamie discovered this sign for GARlIC ICE CREAM at a corner roadside fruit stand on the highway midway between Gilroy and Hollister, CA, and astutely noted that the author used serifs on the uppercase i to distinguish it from the lowercase L, an ironic detail I particularly enjoyed.  It's interesting how the mere thought of two ingredients that normally don't go together can evoke such an unpalatable taste in the mouth. Much like the sight of a lowercase L amidst all uppercase letters.