# Visual Spoonerism **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 25, 2007, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-spoonerism/401570 "2007-04-25T10:01:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-spoonerism/401570/1 "2007-04-25T10:01:45Z")
I was driving to work this morning from the gym, and a sign on a lamp post caught my eye. It said Office for rent **LOST COW** Huh. Who loses a cow in Telford? Then I looked again Office for rent **LOW COST** Who knew you could **see** a spoonerism. Si ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-spoonerism/401570/2 "2007-04-25T10:25:00Z")
Maybe not the same thing but I once saw a sign wrapped round a circular wall in Liverpool that said… “crap for sale” As we drove past the ‘s’ revealed itself from behind a pillar. ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-spoonerism/401570/3 "2007-04-25T10:39:54Z")
[QUOTE=Lobsang] Maybe not the same thing but I once saw a sign wrapped round a circular wall in Liverpool that said… “crap for sale” [/QUOTE] Well, you did say it was in **Liverpool** 😉 Si ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-spoonerism/401570/4 "2007-04-25T12:23:10Z")
Many overpasses in NC have a warning sign saying, “Bridge ices before road” meaning that the bridge cools down quicker than the ground and therefore gets icy and slick even when the road is still good. Thanks to a coworker, I now see these signs as saying, “Ice bridges before road.” He said that was how he always saw them and now I do too. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-spoonerism/401570/5 "2007-04-25T12:30:08Z")
Again, not quite the same. When we visit the in-laws, we pass a fish hatchery. It’s the Deer Creek hatchery. One day, the sign caught only part of my eye. It is now, officially (in our car) the deer hatchery. I once, inadvertently, used it as a landmark when giving directions. Needless to say, They asked someone else for directions. ---
**Author:** ![Khampelf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Khampelf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khampelf)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-spoonerism/401570/6 "2007-04-25T13:05:11Z")
More like **Hypno-Toad’s** example, on long highway drives, when I come across the yellow warning diamonds that say “Slow Trucks” I always wonder, in my micro econmy car, “How the hell do they expect me to do that?” ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-spoonerism/401570/7 "2007-04-25T13:08:04Z")
“Slow children at play” ---
**Author:** ![The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_King_of_Soup)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-spoonerism/401570/8 "2007-04-25T13:16:29Z")
[QUOTE=Lobsang] “Slow children at play” [/QUOTE] “Slow Men Working” – well, at least the kids have jobs waiting for them. My favorite misread sign: while driving past a downtown church I spotted a sign that read, in big red letters, “ST RAGE.” I had time to run through all the catalogue of saints I knew before I drove past the pole that had been obscuring the ‘O.’ Not that there haven’t been angry-ish saints, mind you, but the sign was advertising a warehouse next to the church. ---
**Author:** ![leafrog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cab0a1/32.png) [@leafrog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leafrog)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-spoonerism/401570/9 "2007-04-25T13:48:44Z")
I remember being in the car when my dad was driving once, and he started laughing for no reason any of us could see. He then explained that he had glanced to the side of the road to see a strip mall that had an “El Torito” Mexican restaurant next to an “All Star Video” rental shop, and he had seen “El Starvo” and it had struck him as funny, especially since we had eaten at El Torito and El Starvo was an appropriate name for it! ---
**Author:** ![Terrorcotta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dbc845/32.png) [@Terrorcotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrorcotta)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-spoonerism/401570/10 "2007-04-25T14:07:14Z")
We never eat at the chain Italian place on the corner - O-Evil Garden much less the seafood place, Red Slober. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-spoonerism/401570/11 "2007-04-25T14:44:48Z")
Need I mention how many people accidently read the “Publix” grocery store sign? ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-spoonerism/401570/12 "2007-04-25T15:02:24Z")
A long-haul trucker called [DART](http://www.dartadvantage.com/) uses a logo with big black letters and red arrow shapes zooming out from behind the D and the T. They used to use the same logo with much shorter red arrow shapes which ended just outside the letters, and made DART look like BARF. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-spoonerism/401570/13 "2007-04-25T15:07:04Z")
PICK-A-BAGEL on NYC’s Upper East Side. Come at it from across 2nd Avenue and slightly to the south (jaywalking, natch 🆒 ) and some obstruction in the way (lamppost? another sign? I forget) renders it ICK-A-BAGEL. Excellent bagelry, BTW, not ICK at all.