What the el?: William Levin at the memorial to HARRY K DAGHllAN

On our way back from Vermont the other week, we took a detour via New lONDON, Connecticut, to visit a very SPECIAl place for a very SPECIAl man. BEHOlD, the abomination above! A stunning EXAMPlE of the misuse of lOWERCASE lETTERS in uppercase signage, and a final SlAP in the face to the first CASUAlTY of America’s quest for the atom bomb, “HARRY K DAGHllAN,” who died in a CRITICAl mass experiment gone awry.

lONGTIME readers of EiNY WIll be FAMIlIAR with my buddy WIllIAM’S lOWERCASE L obsession. I’ve had my eye out for such specimens ever since he lAUNCHED his BlOG a couple of years ago. But somehow, I never seem to find ones that meet his stringent criteria. My best-intentioned examples, sent via email, are usually rebuffed with lines like: “Thanks PAUl, but REAllY All the lETTERS should be uppercase, except the L.” Or “It’s good but, because the lOWERCASE L is SMAllER than the other lETTERS you can TEll it’s an L.” And so on. UNTIl the other week, when I came across this abomination on Broadway:

Which prompted the following email response:

Now THIS is a perfect lowercase L.

Success, at lAST.