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Prounced balls
In writing to friends about my posting on Harry Baals, I repeatedly wrote Baals prounced balls with PROUNCED for PRONOUNCED, an omission error in which I “skip ahead” from the first O in PRONOUNCE to...
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Portmanteau cleverness, plus drama kings
Recent portmanteaus that were intended to be clever: Ocularpation, male-odrama. In the news yesterday, an art event on Wall Street and in Battery Park City: Ocularpation (ocular + occupation)....
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The context of danglers
What follows is an abstract for an academic conference (explanation to come) on “dangling modifiers” in context. This is only an abstract, with a 200-word limit and no space for a bibliography (though...
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Typo
The beginning of Tom Friedman’s op-ed piece in yesterday’s NYT: Israel is facing the biggest erosion of its strategic environment since its founding. It is alienated from its longtime ally Turkey. It’s...
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Dubious ad
An ad that appeared on my Facebook page this morning: Ultimate Infidelity Test Womans Panites & Mens Underwear Tested To Expose Cheating Partners. 100% Accurate & Indisputable Just a typo — TI...
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Planning at an abstract level
Yesterday, writing a postcard (by hand), I intended to quote an old (and not particularly good) dirty joke with the line “How far is the Old Log Inn?” in it, but started writing How far is the Old Logg...
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Brief takes 12/20/12
Two brief entertaining items: a typo and an imperfect pun. The raw-bird typo. From George Thompson in ADS-L on the 17th, this wonderful typo: “Thanks to a raw-bird alert in Dutchess County, my wife...
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On the mistakes patrol
Three recent mistakes on my part: a writing error; a mishearing; and a misinterpretation of what I heard. The writing error. Back on the 25th, I intended to write big fuss, but started by producing...
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This week’s great typo
On ADS-L yesterday, Joel Berson relayed this story on upskirting (secretly photographing under a person’s clothing; the person is almost always a woman) from the Boston Globe: Which the highest state...
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Revisiting 16: pouch(ed) and scrumble(d) eggs
Follow-ups to my 12/9 posting on poach egg ‘poached egg’: from Tim Evanson on Google+, pouched egg for poached egg (which will, of course, take us to pouch egg); and from several Facebook friends,...
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This week’s stellar typo
(Passing references to various sexual practices, so you might want to use your judgment.) Today’s mail labeled [SPAM:#####]: (#1) The ad copy is seriously non-native English, so liquid pears for liquid...
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Chic peas and more
The fall special at Dan Gordon’s (on Emerson St. in Palo Alto), as it first appeared on the menu, about a month ago: Summer Stew $16.95 smoked pork / cippolini onions / chic peas / prunes / red rice...
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Winter gardens
Tom Gauld’s cover art “Winter Garden” in the February 4th New Yorker: (#1) A lush indoor garden, in part representing a spring garden outside (narcissus, tulips), in part a garden fantasy (with huge...
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The crusty old editor speaks
The author of the little — 67-page — guidebook The Old Editor Says: Maxims for Writing and Editing (first published in 2013), the old-school newspaper editor John E. McIntyre, writing as a...
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If you can’t spell it, you can’t sell it!
A mailing from Joe and the Juice today, with the header (#1) (#2) The pronunciation (or pronuciation) given is, in full, ॑AH – SAH – EE॑ The typo: PRONOUCE for PRONOUNCE. Fairly common; three more...
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The bristly brute
On Reddit on 2/22, posted by u/Tom7454: “On the anniversary of Arthur Schopenhauer’s birth, David Bather Woods, a Schopenhauer expert at the University of Warwick, recommends five books on...
View ArticleOn the error watch
I’ll start with straightforward typos, where it’s getting the fingers to hit the intended keys that’s at issue, and then work out from there. From Greg Morrow on Facebook earlier today (exchanges...
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Thing sliced ham
On Facebook yesterday, Stewart Kramer reported from Grandma’s Restaurant in Oceanside CA (way down south, between L.A. and San Diego): (#1) [SK:] Thing sliced ham? Thing as in Addams family, Fantastic...
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Ask AZ: fat-fingered typos
In response to my posting yesterday on “Thing sliced ham” — “thing sliced [in English muffin topped with thing sliced ham] looks like a nice example of a pure typo, an error in hitting the right keys...
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Annals of error: the carptenters of Southwest Ohio
A typo in writing — CARPTENTER, with an anticipation of the T in CARPENTER — which was then not caught by a proofreader, so that it got published looking like CARP-TENTER ‘someone or something for...
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