In a time of breaking news and stressed-out journalists, I feel a bit bad for making fun of the extreme typos that I’ve seen coming from Fox News, but I couldn’t avoid posting these two gems. “OBAMA BIN LADEN DEAD”? Really?
The bottom photo just reads, as my friend Krysten pointed out, as if someone’s cat walked across the keyboard.
Back in the day, I loved Contempo Casuals. My town didn’t have one, so whenever I was at a real mall in a real city, I would beg my mom to take me in there. I remember buying my share of Contempo baby tees, floral-print skirts and giant sweaters back in the early ’90s. Then Wet Seal came in and bought all the stores, merging them with their own brand, and the clothes went from slightly edgy preteen garb to teen-hooker club clothes that disintegrated in the first wash.
But I will say that the clothes send a message. This tunic, for example, says, Hey, I’m a total skank who’s, like, too cool for grammar. And stuff.
(Image from Elysia, who saw it here.)
My cousin Anne made the high school honor roll last year, and at the awards ceremony, all the gifted seniors were horrified to discover a very unfortunate anatomical typo inside the program.
This is a common mistake to make, and I have to admit, it makes me laugh every time I see it. But in the context of an awards ceremony honoring the senior class’ best and brightest, it’s even funnier.
Today’s Digital Wall of Shame is a double whammy.
First, and most impressive, is the fact that the headline writers clearly were unsure about the meaning of “inclement.”
While the headline reads, “Travelers should face inclement weather,” the first paragraph says, “According to the National Weather Service, Mother Nature appears as if she’s going to cooperate with dry weather conditions this weekend.” So … “inclement weather” means “clear and dry” then?
Second, a little bonus for you in the form of a lovely typo in the second paragraph. Apparently in Michigan, people are “lcelebrating” all over the place. Spell check is your friend.
I’m flying to Michigan tomorrow, and I’m kind of dreading the new TSA screening methods. At least I have typos on official signs to amuse me while my dignity is compromised.
I snapped this error with my iPhone a few months ago while I was standing in the security line at the Alpena airport. The sign on the wall by the metal detectors contains a pretty big mistake — unless an “unkown” person is a new type of terrorist I’m not aware of.
Like most New Yorkers, I have a love-hate relationship with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. On one hand, New York has amazing public transit that allows most of its residents to exist peacefully without the hassle of owning a car. On the other hand, they keep hiking their damn rates while cutting subway and bus service citywide.
I know times are tough for the MTA. I know that a copy editor’s salary could be spent more efficiently on making subway speaker systems that actually project the conductors’ words (ha!) or on the electronic signs that announce when the train is coming (love these!). At the same time, most eighth-graders know the difference between “it’s” and “its,” so I can’t help but giggle at the latest MTA signage gaffe.
(Image and error found on Gothamist)
My dad sent this to me the other day, and I seriously laughed so loudly I scared my friend Sue in the other room.
Apparently, he said, this headline — published on Dec. 7 — was the talk of the town.
Poor Mom. She was “alway’s” there, and this is what her family gives her in return.
The idea of the traditional American burial creeps me out enough. You spend thousands of dollars on a comfortable coffin you won’t enjoy. Your family members have to endure a funeral service where they surround your stone-cold body in its open casket and make awkward small talk while publicizing their grief. And, really, worst of all, there’s a chance your headstone could be messed up, eternally marking you as an idiot.
You better believe that if someone screws up my headstone after I die, there will be a haunting.
(This horrific photo from the afterlife — which made me laugh out loud at work — is stolen from a blog I really love to read, Apostrophe Abuse. You should definitely check it out.)
In April, my sister and I bought a sweet little embroidered wall hanging for my mom that had the Lord’s Prayer on it. We all thought it was so nice, and my mom proudly displayed it in the living room for all to see.
Today, she sent me an e-mail. As she was rearranging furniture, she noticed one thing — a typo. Whoever stitched this obviously took a long time staring at this sampler, but he or she never noticed that the word “will” was spelled “wil.”
And neither did I after staring at it for so long. And I call myself a copy editor.
Since this is a grammar blog, not a typo blog, I feel a bit cheap for posting so many spelling errors on the Digital Wall of Shame. I mean, it’s almost too easy of a snark, and it’s one that anybody would recognize (I hope) as an error. At the same time, it’s so. damn. funny. It’s mostly funny because it’s so fixable; all you have to do is click one little button, and errors like this can be corrected.
So while I might be taking cheap shots, they’re also well deserved. Even an idiot can use spell check.
Today’s Digital Wall of Shame comes, once again, from my hometown paper, whose publisher doesn’t find it necessary to hire copy editors.
Or use spell check.
This is one of my all-time DWS favorites. It’s been taped on my wall for about a year now, and every time I look at it, I start to laugh. And itch.
Sometimes, there’s really just no excuse for a mistake, especially a big typo on the main story that a simple spell-check would have caught.
Come on, people, get your act “togehter”! Actually, please don’t, or I’d run out of things to snark.
My aunt Colleen sends me a “care package” every few weeks. When I see the manila envelope in the mail, I’m instantly excited. She loves browsing for errors that will make me laugh, and every envelope is stuffed with mistakes she found (mostly in the local paper, The Alpena News) and her snarky comments.
Here’s one she sent a while ago that I finally got to scan in. Yay technology! I especially liked it because I happen to live in “New Your.” I left Coll’s sticky note on there for added flavor.
I am proud to announce that I am the owner of a brand-new HP scanner! (Thanks, Mom and Dad!) This means that you’ll have more freshly cut newspaper mistakes to giggle over every week. To start off, I figured I’d share a hard-copy version of an error I’ve already posted here, because it’s so much funnier when it’s styled in headline format.
So, without further ado, I give you:
Not only is “wrecks havoc” ridiculous, as I stated here, “area” is NOT an adjective. “Area” is only a noun, and if you wanted to use it as an adjective, the correct word is “areal.” Or just use “local,” and you won’t look like a bonehead.
The Kalamazoo (Mich.) Gazette featured a pretty hysterical misspelling on the streets of K-Zoo. Guess whoever painted the street should probably sit in on a few third-grade spelling lessons at nearby Northwood Elementary. [via]
Today’s Digital Wall of Shame entry comes, once again, from The Alpena News. I am eternally grateful for the fact that I can still see a PDF of the front page even though I live across the country.
I’m actually heading back to Alpena tomorrow morning, and I’ll definitely make sure to pack my umbrella.
Don’t want to be caught unprotected when sprinklers are falling from the sky.
Today’s DWS comes to me from the the May 9 Alpena News, constantly a source of merriment and mockery thanks to its refusal to hire copy editors.
Since I don’t have a scanner (but I’m working on it; I swear!), I’ll just type the contents out for you:
Gays Always
Young Meet
Gals Always Young meet at the 19th hole for their April meeting. The small business meeting was chaired by June Cosbitt who presented each member with a gift. There was a discussion of donations and election of officers in May. Isabelle Damon won the mystery gift. The May meeting will be a brown bag luncheon and white elephant sale at the home of Dorothy Carr on Long Lake at 11:30 a.m.
Not gonna lie … I think a meeting of young gays sounds a lot more fun than an old ladies’ meeting.
(Thanks, Mom!)
A few years ago, the weekly newspaper near my hometown of Alpena, Mich., misspelled its flag. Instead of Presque Isle County Advance, it read:
Today, I got an e-mail from my aunt Colleen with the new lovely genitalia error shown above.
I really can’t say it better than Coll did:
“I think every community should have a pubic safety director, don’t you? FYI, I found a copy of the Presque Isle “Cunty Advance” and it’s in the mail! If any community needed a pubic safety director, they do!”
