Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Part I: The Twist to the Gut...

How do you react when you see a typo in public? Do you really care or do you even notice that our acceptance of misspellings seems to expand daily?

On the Techwr-L list today, someone wrote :

*Santa Clause will be here on (dates).*
I informed both the manager and the cashier about the error, boldly taking out my pen and scratching out the trailing 'e' on one of the posters. How would you have reacted?

Someone replied:

Differently, but that's just because I have manners. Telling the manager about the misspelling was appropriate, I guess, since she may have been able to do something about it. I can't see any good reason, though, for telling the cashier, unless you just needed for her to know that you have no life.

Gleefully vandalizing the poster... Wow, I don't even know what to say to that.

When I see spelling and grammar errors, I try to imagine that they've been made by someone I care about, and then I react as I would to that person. I like doing it that way because no one is publicly embarrassed, no one's property gets defaced, and I don't end up looking like an asshole.

Wow. Harsh? My take on it is that I agree with the responder. I mean, the idea that you don't take glee in a tyop is a good thing - after all, we all make mistakes (only God is perfect and I'm not her).
Phil Rosenkranz chimed in with this hilarious story:
Long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away... I worked for a Lumber Yard where the weekly sales advertisement included assorted sized paintbrushes. The sign was posted stating that we were selling
Ass. Brushes for 99 cents each.
And with that, I end part I of my post. I am going to post some pics of surprise party Friday night.

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