oddly enough

oddly enough

Spelling counts: Errors on signs cost county $4,000

NORRISTOWN, Pa.

Spelling counts – and sometimes it costs money.

A suburban Philadelphia county was victim to an embarrassing misspelling on signage posted around the local community: the word “commissioners” with only one “m” on 26 signs.

Montgomery County officials say it will take about 10 days and $4,000 to correct the error with adhesive labels.

The 6-foot-tall signs bear the county’s website and the names of the three county commissioners. They were posted in parks, along the county trail system and in front of the courthouse several months ago.

The signs replaced out-of-date and mismatched signs around the county.

A county employee noticed the error and reported it to officials.

Giant purple sea slugs slime San Francisco Bay Area beaches

ALAMEDA, Calif.

A giant purple blob from the sea – a slug – is invading East Bay beaches and waterways this summer, and some experts say it may be caused by higher temperatures near coastal waters.

These California sea hares are harmless plant eaters. But their big size and unusual abundance this year is turning heads at the shorelines in the cities of Crab Cove in Alameda and Miller Knox Regional Park in Richmond, as well as Lake Merritt in Oakland and Tomales Bay in Marin County, the Contra Costa Times reported Saturday.

“We are getting calls from the public asking what the heck is this big, weird, purple blob,” said Carolyn Jones, a spokeswoman for the East Bay Regional Park District. “It’s native to our area. It’s not endangered, but they are rarely seen other than an occasional one here or there.”

Officials have no precise count, but dozens have been seen on some beaches at the same time, and two dozen were spotted last month in an inlet to Lake Merritt in Oakland.

The first ones were spotted last fall. But more have been seen in May and June – including ones that captured the crowd’s attention last weekend at an annual sand castle-building contest at Crown Beach in Alameda.

The slugs can reach 15 pounds or more and 30 inches in length, although the ones in the East Bay are smaller – about the size of a large fist or a heart. They are called sea hares because their thick antennae resemble rabbit ears.

The boom in sea hares may be related to higher temperatures near coastal waters, said Morgan Dill, a naturalist at the Crab Cove Visitor Center in Alameda. “We can’t say for sure why we’re seeing so many, but the bay temperatures are definitely warmer this year,” Dill said.

Associated Press