Minor things that bother you

[Big John]

Recall that manual typewriters did not have a key for the numeral "1," presumably because the character was identical to a lowercase "L" in both "pica" and "elite" type. I worked with someone who persisted in using a lowercase "L" for the numeral "1" long into the 1990s—more or less, "This is how I learned to type and I'm not changing." (I always wondered whether the slightly different key arrangement threw her off, but I never asked.) I found that distracting because in most proportionally spaced serif typefaces, the difference between the two is noticeable—the number "1" is a wider character with larger serifs. And in typefaces like Aptos (which, to be sure, didn't exist back then), the difference is even more noticeable due to the right-facing curve at the bottom of the lowercase "L."

I've also seen the capital letter I used in place of the numeral 1.

On the old To Tell The Truth. Kitty Carlyle always did that for contestent 1, and it bothered me.

[kphoger]

I've also seen the capital letter I used in place of the numeral 1.

On the old To Tell The Truth. Kitty Carlyle always did that for contestent 1, and it bothered me.

I've seen it in enough scholarly works, that I'm inclined to just think of it as normal.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

21st century workplace problems where people think you're effectively always on call outside of the office because you, like most people, have a phone and a computer. I can ignore the text asking for things at 10:30 PM on Sunday night, sure, but I can't avoid receiving it in the first place.

[wxfree]

Any font that makes these three look the same:  Il1

Any font that makes these two look the same:  O0

That last one was an issue (a small one) when I signed up my grandmother's car for a TollTag.  I reported the license plate number with a zero, and the lady asked if it was zero or O.  I remember Texas plates, the standard, non-custom plates, having strings of letters and numbers, so you can tell what it is by where it is.  The current pattern is ABC 1234.  Before was ABC 123 and I think before was AB 1234.  I think before that was 123 ABC.  I'm not certain they use O.  I seem to remember thinking that they didn't use O not because it looked like 0 (since letters and numbers are segregated) but because on a distant and moving target it looks too much like D.  I remember thinking I'd never seen one, but I've never really paid attention.  I've been meaning to watch for them.  Anyway, she looked up the plate number and verified that it was zero.

Minor thing that bothers me: the oval oh.  If you print them correctly, as a circle, then confusion with zero isn't an issue (other than things like license plates, where you can't always read it clearly). With writing I get it.  My Os come out rather narrow, so putting a stroke across a zero makes sense (I don't do it because you can tell which it is based on the context).  There's no reason for it to be an issue when typing if you don't intentionally design your Os to be narrow.

[DenverBrian]

shirt tags that won't stay down
when someone's else's shirt tag is visible
shirt tags that are scratchy

Tagless shirts are becoming increasingly popular.

And a pair of scissors can eliminate the won't-stay-down or scratchy tags.

A lot of "tagless" shirts aren't tagless. They may be tagless in the neck, but at the waistline there's a redonkulous scratchy label providing washing instructions in 17 languages.

[kphoger]

They may be tagless in the neck, but at the waistline there's a redonkulous scratchy label providing washing instructions in 17 languages.

I wish they were in 17 languages, rather than just a bunch of unintuitive geometric shapes.

[1995hoo]

Any font that makes these three look the same:  Il1

Any font that makes these two look the same:  O0

That last one was an issue (a small one) when I signed up my grandmother's car for a TollTag.  I reported the license plate number with a zero, and the lady asked if it was zero or O.  I remember Texas plates, the standard, non-custom plates, having strings of letters and numbers, so you can tell what it is by where it is.  The current pattern is ABC 1234.  Before was ABC 123 and I think before was AB 1234.  I think before that was 123 ABC.  I'm not certain they use O.  I seem to remember thinking that they didn't use O not because it looked like 0 (since letters and numbers are segregated) but because on a distant and moving target it looks too much like D.  I remember thinking I'd never seen one, but I've never really paid attention.  I've been meaning to watch for them.  Anyway, she looked up the plate number and verified that it was zero.

....

And then you have people who use "oh" to refer to the number zero. For example, area code "seven oh three" instead of "seven zero three" or ZIP Code "two two oh oh three" instead of "two two zero zero three" (that's for Annandale, Virginia). In those examples, of course, it's harmless error because neither area codes nor ZIP Codes contain letters, so the context tells the listener that "oh" refers to a number. Your example of a license plate is an excellent example of why that practice can be problematic, though.

[kphoger]

And then there's Missouri, whose license plates are in an AB1-C2D format and, annoyingly, can have zeroes.

[wxfree]

Is there an archive of license plate patterns?  Thinking back, I think my description was wrong.  I remember a plate about 25 years ago in the format of A12 BCD.  The one after that was AB 1234.  That was dark blue on light blue, which I thought was stupid.  123 ABC was after that.  That was in the classic black on white.    Now I can't remember ABC 123.  I think I might have reversed the numbers and letters.  These patterns are from Texas.  The first round of seven digit plates is nearly used up.  ABC 1234 is at least up to the first digit being X.

[kphoger]

Is there an archive of license plate patterns?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Texas#1975_to_present

https://15q.net/tx.html

[jeffandnicole]

Any font that makes these three look the same:  Il1

Any font that makes these two look the same:  O0

This is where PA registered vehicle owners are finding themselves in trouble with automated readers for tolls, parking, red light and speed cameras.  The two numbers 08 look nearly identical, especially from a short distance away, and vehicle owners with an 8 are finding themselves getting violation notices when the actual digit is a 0.

[The_Ginger]

Is there an archive of license plate patterns?

https://licenseplates.cc/

[Scott5114]

re: license plates, it is amazing to me that Nevada can somehow get away with 1234A5 without continually running out of plates. I guess there are enough people using specialty plates with other schemes that they can make it work.

I've also seen the capital letter I used in place of the numeral 1.

When in Rome...

I wish they were in 17 languages, rather than just a bunch of unintuitive geometric shapes.

The shapes are at least standardized. When I took home ec family and consumer sciences in high school they taught what all the symbols mean. I ended up making a chart on the computer that I printed out and hung in the laundry room, along with info for what sort of cleaner to use on what sort of stain.

I wish I had thought to make a copy of it for myself when I moved out instead of leaving it hanging on the wall in my mother's laundry room, considering that she had been doing laundry for 30 years at the time I hung the chart up.

[The_Ginger]

Any font that makes these three look the same:  Il1

Any font that makes these two look the same:  O0

West Virginia has a similar "issue" with their plates. The letter O and number 0 look startlingly similar:



The good thing is that the first character is the month the plate expires (1-9, O, N, D) so a 0 there isn't possible.

Newer plates use the same scheme for the first character and an additional letter, so it's even worse there.

[kphoger]

Is there an archive of license plate patterns?

https://licenseplates.cc/

Unless I'm missing something, that site isn't much of an archive.  It pretty much just focuses on the current series.

[JayhawkCO]

Re:  country names...

I'll still call them the Ivory Coast (definite article included) and Turkey.  They're the same names, just slightly different in the other language, so I'm just going to keep going with the good old English one.  They can call the USA whatever they want in return.

Same with some cities in Asia, such as Calcutta and Bangalore, but only if their old names stand out in my mind.

I still call it Swaziland, because I'm not an idiot and I can keep Switzerland and Swaziland straight in my head.  Stupid reason to change the name.

I go back and forth between Burma and Myanmar, because they're ki-i-i-i-ind of the same name.

I like Czechia better than the Czech Republic in theory, but for some reason I still haven't gotten used to actually saying it out loud.

I used to bristle at being expected to drop the definite article from before Ukraine, and yet somehow in the last year or two I've ended up dropping it anyway—not even on purpose.

I really wish there were a nice way to distinguish the country Georgia from the state Georgia.  But the country's official English name isn't even "Republic of Georgia" or anything:  it's just "Georgia".  If there's any country whose name needs to be tweaked, it's that one.

Ivory Coast is fine since it's a direct English translation anyway.

I was doing Turkiye but then found out it's mostly just Erdogan that wants it called that, so eff that guy.

eSwatini is fun to say and no issues using that.

I now call it Burma, since, similar to the Turkey case, it's just the junta wanting it called Myanmar. Locally, they call it Burma.

Czechia is better because "Republic" is normally only used for differentiating the Congos (and C.A.R., but that country should just get a better name anyway), or one personal to me.

Re: "The" Ukraine, I have a tough time removing it from "Yukon" too.

Georgia is a weird one, because when I tell people I proposed to my wife there, I typically include "Republic of" to ease confusion. Kind of like "Washington state".

Looks like Nauru wants to now be known as Naoero.

https://www.mfat.govt.nz/en/countries-and-regions/australia-and-pacific/nauru

[kphoger]

I've also seen the capital letter I used in place of the numeral 1.

When in Rome...

... don't use the letter o for a zero?

[The_Ginger]

Is there an archive of license plate patterns?

https://licenseplates.cc/

Unless I'm missing something, that site isn't much of an archive.  It pretty much just focuses on the current series.

Yes, but it does give reported history back to 2000 in some cases.

https://licenseplates.cc/history.php?id=384

[kphoger]

Looks like Nauru wants to now be known as Naoero.

This is getting silly.  Pretty soon they'll expect us to swap out the z for an s in Brazil, and stick a t at the beginning of Chad, and hock up a loogie instead of saying Hungary.

[JayhawkCO]

Looks like Nauru wants to now be known as Naoero.

This is getting silly.  Pretty soon they'll expect us to swap out the z for an s in Brazil, and stick a t at the beginning of Chad, and hock up a loogie instead of saying Hungary.

As long as it lacks diacritics, I'm generally okay with calling it whatever the locals call it (assuming no English translation a la Ivory Coast).

[kphoger]

As long as it lacks diacritics, I'm generally okay with calling it whatever the locals call it (assuming no English translation a la Ivory Coast).

Is there a breaking point at which you would stop?

Azərbaycan 
Belgique
Bosna i Hercegovina
Brasil
Uburundi
Cameroun
Komori
Hrvatska
Danmark
Eesti
Suomi
Guyane
Kalaallit Nunaat
Italia
Kosova
Latvija
Lietuva
Madagasikara
Nederland
Belau
Papua Niugini
Pilipinas
Polska
Sesel
Slovensko
Slovenija
Sverige
Schweiz/Suisse/Svizzera

[Scott5114]

Sverige

This one is fun because, to an English speaker, it doesn't sound at all like how it's spelled.

[GaryV]

I've also seen the capital letter I used in place of the numeral 1.

Would that be the Times Old Roman font? 

[JayhawkCO]

Is there a breaking point at which you would stop?

Yeah. Basically if the country doesn't request it from the international community, I wouldn't use it.

[formulanone]

Uburundi

This is more memorable, but I have no idea how to make it catch on without sounding like a tryhard.

Papua Niugini

There's enough places with "Guinea" in it, might as well use their spelling as well.