Brid food sign tells a story of retail woe

As a compulsive photographer of odd signs, I have to say that "Brid" (origin unknown) has it all. It's the implied story I love:

Bob: Aw, jeez, you're kidding. "Brid?" Who made these things? Fine. I'll just put 'em out for $1.19.

Customer 1: Hey, did you see this? This bucket says "brid!" That's pretty funny! I bet they meant "bird," right?

Bob: Yes, sir, I expect they did.

[Later]

Customer 2: Excuse me, but there's a spelling error on this product.

Bob: Yes, ma'am, we know. That's why it's on sale.

Customer 2: Only it's spelled "bird," not "brid."

Bob: Thank you, ma'am.

Customer 3: Sir? Sir? Do you sell any brid food to go in this brid bucket?

Bob: Very funny, sir.

[...]

Customer 3,487: BRID! What kinda idiots are you people anyway? Can't you spell?

Bob: We don't make the products, sir. We just sell them.

[Bob fires up the laser-printer, amends sign]

(Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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10xor01

No need for a discount. It’s clearly just a drawing of a bird whose name happens to be Brid.
AlexG55

Brid brid brid, the brid is the wrod!
- Loafer
  
  hahaha, best. comment. ever.
Kiscica

Interestingly ‘brid’ was the original (Old English) form and still exists dialectally…
blueelm

Slap an E on the end and mark those UP for profit. It’s for folksy weddings, y’all.
- Navin_Johnson
  
  Or an “Hy” at the beginning to appeal to the ‘green’ crowd.
Boundegar

Even if it was spelled right, that bucket is unbearably twee.
- GawainLavers
  
  Is “twee” the sound that “brids” make?
Michael McCarthy

Actually, the origin of the word “Bird” is “Bridd”, which in Old English meant young bird or nestling. The “i” and the “r” got switched around in a language phenomenon called metathesis. A word that is undergoing metathesis today is “nuclear,” which, as our former President George W Bush will attest is pronounced “nucular.” So they should charge more for the bucket, not less. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=bird
- ldobe
  
  The “noocyoolur” pronunciation never fails to piss me off. Half the time I’ll draw a diagram of an atom and ask them to point to the “noocyoolus”.
  - Handletag
    
    The “comfterble” pronunciation of “comfortable” never fails to piss me off. Half the time I’ll draw a diagram of an EZ-Boy™ Recliner and ask them to point to the “comfter”.
    - pietrocrazy
      
      ”Comfterble” is the standard pronunciation, at least in America. Check any dictionary and they will list it as the most common pronunciation. If this pisses you off, I can’t imagine how you survive day-to-day life.
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        That’s fucked up. But then I come from a place where most people think that January is followed by Febyooary. These are the times that I appreciate my mother’s draconian insistence on good diction.
      - Handletag
        
        “Dissimilation may occur when a word contains two identical or closely related sounds, resulting in the change or loss of one of them. This happens regularly in February, which is more often pronounced ˈfe-b(y)ə-ˌwer-ē than ˈfe-brə-ˌwer-ē, though all of these variants are in frequent use and widely accepted. The y heard from many speakers is not an intrusion but rather a common pronunciation of the vowel u after a consonant, as in January and annual.”
        
        http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/february
        
        …more often… ..widely accepted… …common pronunciation….
        
        War’s over, man. Sorry.
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        War’s over, man. Sorry.
        
        It takes two sides to end the war.
      - Handletag
        
        Yeah, well “nu-kyoo-ler” is also a standard pronunciation, at least in America. Check any decent dictionary and they will list it as an accepted pronunciation. Or consult President Jimmy Carter (studied nuclear physics, served as engineer on a nuclear submarine, has a nuclear submarine named after him, etc.) He says “nu-kyoo-ler”, not because he’s too stupid to know better, but because it’s a correct pronunciation. People who get all butt-hurt because–oh no!– there is more than one way to properly pronounce a word need to relax a little and get outdoors more often (which was my original point).
        
        From
        http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nuclear :
        “Though disapproved of by many, pronunciations [of "nuclear"] ending in -kyə-lər have been found in widespread use among educated speakers including scientists, lawyers, professors, congressmen, United States cabinet members, and at least two United States presidents and one vice president. While most common in the United States, these pronunciations have also been heard from British and Canadian speakers.”
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        No.
Navin_Johnson

Outsroucing josb
- ferd
  
  Exactly my thought. To paraphrase Forrest, “Cheap is as cheap does.”
  
  Ferd, graphics person downsized for cheaper, foreign labor.
Jeremy Fitzhardinge

If you think that’s true, I’ve got a brid to sell you.
- Michael McCarthy
  
  From the Oxford English Dictionary:
  
  1377 Langland Piers Plowman B. xi. 348 ”Some..bredden, and brouȝten forth her bryddes so · al aboue þe grounde.”
  
  http://www.oed.com
CaptainPedge

Correction:

Customer 1: Hey, did you see this? This bucket says “brid!” That’s pretty funny! I bet YOU meant “bird,” right?

Everyone knows the people who work at the shops make the products they sell!
http://www.facebook.com/stevewhiteproductions Steve White

For Morans,
Awesomer

Put a brid on it.
- awjt
  
  Ptu a. brid no ti
  - Awesomer
    
    Oci waht yuo ddi.
  - Preston Sturges
    
    Brid Brid Brid Teh Brid Si Teh Wrdo!
    Brid Brid Brid Teh Brid Si Teh Wrdo! Yahe!
    - awjt
      
      !!!Yahe
http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher

Obviously it’s the work of a birdbrain.
- awjt
  
  bridbrain FFS
Steve Miller

Hah! Jack only got magic beans. If he’d only held out, he could have grown a wife from seed!
blackbooks

When I glanced at the pic before looking at the article I read it as Brid (pronounced ‘breed’), as in the short version of the Irish name Bridget. I thought it was a flower pot meant as a gift for someone named Brid, and that there might be ones for Cian, Ruairi and Sorcha as well. But no, it is a misspelled bird.
awjt

It would be funnier if the sign read, “due to the misspelling of the word bride.” That way people go, WTF?
Michael Polo

Only 10,000 left in stock too.
http://twitter.com/johnmurph68 John Murphy

Export them for sale to Ireland where Brid is a first name. I’ve a cousin with the name. The name isnt as common as it once was but there are still a fair few around.

Technically its missing a fada (Irish/Gaelic for acute accent) over the i and should be Bríd but wouldnt be a huge issue as lots of people use Brid with no fada to denote the English spelling of the name.
jimh

Byuer beware.
http://twitter.com/stuck411 David

I envision the sign creation going more like this:
Customer: This thing says ‘brid’. How about letting me buy it for 1/2 off?
Retailer: It’s been discounted already because of the misspelling. The price is $1.19.
Customer: No. Really? Can’t you give me a discount from the $1.19 because clearly the word should be B-I-R-D?
Retailer: (Exasperated from this conversation repeating itself 5X a day makes the sign.)
Michael McCarthy

Then it doesn’t raelly mttaer beacuse when wrods are five lteters or logner you can read them aynawy as long as the frist and the last letetrs are palced in the corerct psoition. Brid is cosle eoungh, thugoh brids wulod be celarer.
Thad

The picture would have been enough. The lilly does not need gliding.
http://profiles.google.com/spacewatcer Marios P.

the other day in the supermarket they were giving away grated cheese with another cheesy product of the same manufacturer. Only when I went home i realised that instead of grated cheese I had gotten greated cheese. The taste was great indeed!
Preston Sturges

I have a Chinese “Meat Clever” that was marked down.
http://www.facebook.com/brid.white Bríd DeFaoite

I don’t see what the problem is? The fact they forgot the fada?
http://profiles.google.com/westcarleton Ray Perkins

Judging from all the tweets and YouTube comments I’ve seen, I doubt the majority of folks out there would even notice.
http://profile.yahoo.com/LD434QA4OHSFDAUWQ2SEZP3C5U J

If the misprint had been on a postage stamp, the price would have skyrocketed! :)