Bit Stampede

So I’m at the supermarket yesterday to pick up some eggs, and as I’m walking in toward the entrance, I see they’ve got firewood on sale. Right next to that they have a huge stack of bundles of small bits of wood. Above which is a sign that says “KINLIN.”

When did it become appropriate to totally botch the spelling of words on signs at a place of business?

This, to me, is right up there with naming businesses things like “EZ-Mart”. For goodness’ sake, just spell it out as “Easy Mart.” Seeing “EZ” makes me think the person that runs the place has to be a clueless moron.

This is related to another massive pet peeve of mine. While I have no real problem with using shorthand when doing text messaging on a phone (especially when you’re using a keyboard the size of a saltine), I have a huge problem with people that send real email or even snail mail using abbreviations like “u” and “r” instead of spelling the words out. Are the words “you” and “are” really that hard to type or write?