What's a Howler?
Our definition of a howler is any printed material that contains an obvious spelling mistake or grammatical error. (Occasionally, a web page
is included as long as it appears to be intended as a professionally published site where errors should have been spotted and corrected
before the page was made public.)
Hastily scribbled notes and the like don't usually count. It has to be something such as an advertisement or a poster
that should have been proof-read and corrected but somehow found its way to public display. You might think that only home-made posters
would appear on this page, but this is not the case. Even supposedly professionally produced signs and posters can be found containing
glaring errors. We hope you enjoy them!
So here are the howlers...
November 2011
Do they really mean kw ?
That would be one powerful heater!
Seen on an offers leaflet from the Original Factory Shop.
September 2011
Why are animals not allowed up the tower?
And why so many Inappropriate Capital Letters?
Shame some professional proof-reader's didn't check this sign!
August 2011
Strictly speaking, this should not really be a howler as it is hand-scrawled, but it was prominently displayed in a public place.
Whoever wrote this should have known the difference betweem 'past' and 'passed' shouldn't they?
We are, of course, grateful that "Joe's" does at least, have its requisite apostrophe.
Joe's Beach Bar, Ingoldmells, Lincs.
July 2011
A visit to RAF Waddington for the annual International Air Show has provided us with a new Howler.
A display provided by the Derwent Dam Museum, contained information about
the difficulty of aiming and releasing the famous 'Bouncing Bomb', invented by Barnes Wallis, with sufficient accuracy to do the job.
The bombsights produced for the airmen consisted of nothing more than two
nails in a piece of wood, but is was good enough.
Sadly however, bombsights came out 'bomb site' on the glossy poster and nobody noticed!
Howler aside though, it was a fine exhibit with lots of interesting things to read.
 Read more about the Derwent Dam Museum on 'The Pages'.
June 2011
No howlers for a while so it's nice to be able to bring you two at once!
Firstly, you may be tempted to buy a Childerns Playcabin if you have any childern, that is.
Odd that the special offer alongside spells the word correctly, and even includes an apostrophe. (Spotted at
Tong Garden Centre, Tong, Bradford, April 2011).
Secondly, from the Early Learning Centre comes an educational game with a gaffe.
See if you can spot the error? (And there's a clue for you!)
No sooner did we publish the two Howlers above, than we received this one from Dave in Midsomer Norton.
Shame it wasn't proof-read by professional's.
The Diadembooks website has now been corrected.
December 2010
This month's entry is not a spelling error or grammatical mistake but the recent full-page advertisements
from Morrisons challenge our own definition of howler, and must surely be reported. Click
here to see what we mean.
March 2010
Double quoted glitch.
(Click image for more details)
Also, read our General Theory of Apostrophes for more information.
February 2010
Argh!
December 2009
A Christmas present provided us with not only a High Speed Drink Chiller but also, a Howler for our page!
Click the image, left, to see what we mean.
Also this month, and following our identification of two spare apostrophes during September (see below), we've gathered
further evidence to support our own General Theory of Apostrophes at a pub on the way to Liverpool, pictured below:
The Bears Paw (sic) near Knutsford, Cheshire.
November 2009
Interestingly, this sign, which was attached to a self-service till in a supermarket, stayed in place for some time.
It was only removed when the till in question was mended.
It appears that the odd typo dosen't matter enough to the staff,
from till operator to store manager presumably, to warrant a replacement sign.
September 2009
You may have heard about Stefan Gatward who recently took his paintbrush and added the missing
apostrophes to various signs in his home town of Tunbridge Wells.
Quite understandably, he didn't like "St Johns Close", and so
corrected it to "St John's Close".
Within a few days, though, the local council came round and removed his work!
Perhaps you also read about the good folk of Birmingham whose local council decided to do away with
apostrophes on street signs altogether in the name of 'consistency'. (See our Jaropa Comment
from the 30th January 2009,
A language fanatics nightmare.)
Of course, with all these street names that are without their requisite apostrpohes, and in accordance
with our own General Theory of Apostrophes (see link below), there must be some spare
apostrophes floating around somewhere. And to prove that we are correct, here are two that we found quite
recently!
February 2009
After something of a lull in Howlers, we were pleased to learn that the minister responsible for ensuring our children
have good standards of literacy, Jim Knight MP, had made a few welcome contributions. You will know from the news that he achieved nine
obvious errors in about 120 words. Quite an achievement. Or an acheivement, as Mr. Knight would probably put it.
Examples: ‘received’ as ‘receieved’ and ‘maintenance’ as ‘maintainence’.
Then there's 'there is also a lot of positive things'.
Closer to home the headteacher at our local secondary school thinks that 'SATs' requires an apostrophe...
Not much hope really, is there?
Summer 2008
Fresh from the cover of a book found in a Scottish gift shop, where there appears to
still be something of an apostrpohe shortage.
Then again, perhaps not...
Read our theory.
Another company that thinks it are plural.
EDF Energy even sounds singular!
In the full page adverts, EDF Energy repeats the error several times.
The "above company" are plural, it seems.
Capital letters and apostrophes are in very short supply this year.
The following can be clicked on for explanation
Other howlers
Sadly without photographic evidence but an excellent howler was the poster, spotted in an office
in Leeds, telling us about a Fourth Coming event.
Had we somehow
hibernated through the Second Coming and then done exactly the same with the Third Coming?
We will probably never know.
Then there was the splendid "Millenium Food Store's" on Alfreton Road
on the way into Nottingham, whose owners managed to incorporate
two errors into just three words (the mis-spelt 'Millenium' and the wandering apostrophe in Store's).
In a similar vein, and in six-foot high letters painted on a wall in Nottingham,
were the words "The Old Railway Track's". The top tip here is,
if you don't know how to use an apostrophe, don't try to, especially if painting such large letters on a wall for all to see.
Note that these words had been professionally painted to denote the location of a public house: it wasn't just scribbled on in haste.
Sadly,
we've been unable to track down the wall and hence, the howler in question. Perhaps the building has been demolished.
Rest assured, Jaropa will be adding more Howlers to this page very soon.
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