Monday, April 22, 2019

More Adventures in Proofreading


            As a nitpicker from way back, I can’t help but notice typos or misspellings which have slipped past human or computronic watchers.



            The above is from the May 27, 1973 New York Times.  Some might call it Freudian to misspell “movement” as “movemeat.”



            This misspelling is not evident in the original article’s headline.  It’s only “entertianment” online.



           Speaking of lines (on and head), the wizardly Cal Thomas misstepped in October, 2018.  Although boats or other things may be towed with a line (rope), the phrase is figuratively referring to a footrace.  When the contestants are getting ready to run, they line their feet up at the starting line.  Everybody toes the line.


            In the 2014 book Marketing the Moon, we have the deplorable confusion of “pour” and “pore.”  You POUR (decant) a glass of water.  You PORE over (study or intensely scrutinize) something important.



            The last example is a case of “headline blindness.”  It’s not uncommon to notice a howler of a typo or misspelling in a headline.  You wonder, “How in the WORLD did somebody miss that?”  I think there’s some kind of switch in the proofreading mind which isn’t tripped when the font is big enough.



             Yes, in this frame-up of the ne’er-do-well James Ray, James Johnson wasn’t referring to NBA basketball player Nick Collison or to NBA basketball player Darren Collison.  Nope, it’s just a boneheaded misspelling of “collision.”

            As you can see from this screen caption from January 2019, typos never end!



            Feel free to parse the Super Blog for misspellings I may have made, until next Monday, our next installment in April Foolishness – 2019 Edition!
 
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