It’s that time of year again: the ubiquitous “Restrictions in Effect” signs are popping up around the periphery of Bismarck. Restrictions of what nature, you ask? If your only source of information is these signs, I suppose it’s anyone’s guess.

I saw these signs go up two years ago and thought they were pretty funny. Obviously it’s because of the load restrictions on Bismarck roads, which I heard about on the radio, but the signs are vague enough to omit that detail. It’s only after someone figured out what was missing and wedged a little “Load” in there that the signs made sense:

This is how the corrected signs looked last year. I was actually surprised to find an unmodified one posted up along Divide Avenue this afternoon. The top two pictures are from today, the bottom picture from last year. As you can see in this post from last March, I was almost second-guessing whether I’d even seen the signs without the word “Load” inserted. Today’s sighting of one of the original signs is a bit of a vindication, I suppose. Now someone’s going to have to dash up to Divide Avenue with another “Load” sticker!

I’m known as a neurotic proofreader, but it was actually my friend Luke Graner who pointed out this little gaffe along Washington Street. It could be a goof by whoever made the sign for the ECLC, I suppose; however, it seems to have escaped the notice of anyone in charge. If a sign with a blatant punctuation error shows up for your business or organization, it’s prudent to have the sign company rectify the problem… especially if your business is education!

That reminds me of some of the vehicles I’ve seen around town with Bismarck spelled wrong. Even when I was a kid, I noticed that some of the Cass Clay trucks in Mandan had that misspelling. Then there was the time the phone books had “Bismark” on the spine…that one made the news when I was working at KFYR TV.

One of my other favorite examples of a sign snafu was this truck, which sits along the nature trail on the Mandan side of the Missouri River:

Below is a photo of the truck as it sits…it probably went through most of its useful life of service with that mistake on the door! I didn’t look to see what the other side said, although I doubt it would have the same misspelling. I figure the artist got a phone call in the middle of painting “Bismarck” on the door or something. Don’t you hate getting interrupted? On a hand-painted door, it’s pretty hard to claim it was just a typo!

I’m not immune to making such mistakes, of course. I just think they’re interesting to point out. I’ve made plenty of oversights of my own. It’s embarrassing when it happens…especially to those of us who point out the occasional mistake of others!

I had to chuckle when I saw this ad for Eide Ford last night – Bismarck was missing a C! It’s no surprise, really…these ads aren’t produced in Bismarck, or even in North Dakota to the best of my recollection. When I was in local television, they were shipped in from out of state and aired locally. At that time I think it was South Dakota, now it seems someplace that doesn’t know how Bismarck is spelled.

In any case, I saw the ad go by this morning with the C where it should B. No harm, no foul. At least somebody else caught it and fixed it. It would be pretty embarassing to have your business’s home town misspelled on an ad trying to earn the trust of people in that town:

Oops. As far as I know, this one might still be driving around. Is it the fault of the advertiser? Probably not, unless they were shown a copy of the ad to approve before it went on the bus. That’s standard procedure. But the initial typo is most likely not theirs. Unfortunately, it’s their name that gets associated with the misspelling.

No worries, this has been going on since the 1800s. Sooner or later we’ll all get it right. Until then, it’s just fun to point it out. Remember when the phone books had it wrong a few years ago? That even made the news! I’m glad I live in a community where misspelling it on the phone books is newsworthy. Besides, it helps hone the proofreading skills.

These first-class train tickets from the 1870s show that people have always had a problem with the proper spelling of our fair city. Bismarck sprang to life in 1872 and got its current name a year later, so it’s a reasonable conclusion that the name has been a source of misspellings ever since. How many times is misspelled on your mail?

I posted about this truck a long time ago, and I remember seeing Cass Clay trucks at the facility in Mandan with the same error. Then there were the ill-fated phone books of about ten years ago, which I believe were Yellow Book products. Oops.

What would Otto von Bismarck think? After all, our capital city was originally named Edwinton but later renamed after Herr Chancellor in order to attract German immigrants (and investment in the railroad).

 

This is a Subway contest that you can find online by clicking here. The contest involves writing a story using one of four starting points provided by Subway. There’s only one caveat:

No home school kids are allowed! No reason is given. Judging from the first thing that jumped out at me when I read his ad, I can see why:

Apparently the ad was typed or proofread by a product of the public school system!

I don’t actually buy into the stereotypes of public vs. home schooled children completely. For instance, I know plenty of smart products of public schools. But I think home schooled kids should be allowed the same opportunities as public school kids. I remember a stink a few years back about a kid who wanted to compete in NDHSAA speech events, for instance. I’m all for it.

The fact of the matter is that home school kids wouldn’t be sneered at or excluded if they weren’t often 1) pretty proficient, and 2) Christians of some sort. I don’t know which of these is a threat to Subway, but it’s a bit of a black eye in this instance nonetheless.

Just in case they (ahem) make the mistake go away, you can click here for a screen capture of the original contest entry page as I found it.