City Swimming Pool Offers “Free Soup”

An alert reader brought to Grapevine’s attention yet another reason why spellcheck is not enough.

A new sign displaying the rules for swimming at Laugardalslaug pool greets visitors on the way into the changing rooms, delivering the promise of “free soup” in the shower room. This soup, however, is only meant to be used for washing; not eating.

Most readers could probably guess by context that the intended word here was “soap”, and Grapevine has not received any reports from dismayed swimmers who hoped for free soup with their pre-swim shower. The mistake could be attributed to the use of spellcheck for writing the text, but that does not explain why “your” is spelled as “yor”.

Estelle Divorne, who took these photos, told us she has forwarded them to Reykjavík city offices, who oversee the management of capital pools. Unfortunately, this likely means the signs will be replaced soon.