Our Declining Language (part 31 in an endless series)

It's been a while since we checked in on the state of our language. Here's the latest: It's still declining.

I know I'm on about this sort of thing more than most, but I come from a time when anyone creating text intended for public viewing would check and double check each word before going to print. Back then, proofreaders were understood to be necessary contributors. A typo was cause for great embarrassment. And whenever possible, the rare mistake was immediately corrected. Today...well, I don't quite know what to make of the situation. Somehow, those who practice and advocate accuracy have come to be thought of as persnickety, while those who can neither spell properly nor use the correct words for things—or don't care enough to check—are seen as just people who express themselves differently. It's a sure sign that the end is near.

And with that I give you this 31st installment in the endless series, Our Declining Language.

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Dammit, Manuel, how many times do we have to go over this?

Now, here's an unusual ingredient one doesn't often encounter:

For those of you unfamiliar with lintels, here's the definition from Webster's:

It could be a bit tough on the teeth, I should think.

You know things are bad when it takes a bit of effort to unwind exactly what has been misspelled. These fine folks were not giving away free kitchens (much to the disappointment of the many hopeful parking lot kitchen shoppers who happened by). They also weren't giving away free chickens, which would have made more sense. No, what they intended to communicate was that they were giving away free kittens. I'm sure that by the time any potential adopters figured that out, even "kittens" was no longer inaccurate as by then, the dear things were surely full-grown cats.