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February 11, 2014
Training Proofreaders Didn't Make the List
Posted by gerardvanderleun at February 11, 2014 8:39 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.
Your Say
One of my favorite typos--the one that made other shoppers in the grocery store think I was barking mad, I was laughing so hard---was when the store sign department (Beavis and Butthead, apparently) printed up a sale sign for some one-dish frozen meals called "Easy Bowels."
And they wondered why the produce didn't move.
Posted by: ahem at February 11, 2014 9:10 AM
I'd like to believe this is photoshop but who knows. You'd think that spellcheck would make for better writing and improved spelling, but it actually has created more typos and worse writing.
Posted by: Christopher Taylor at February 11, 2014 9:51 AM
That about sums it up.
Posted by: Leslie at February 11, 2014 9:52 AM
Seems to be legit and not a photoshop. News reports at the time;
http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/billboard-touts-south-bends-pubic-schools-12200
http://www.liveleak.com/view?comments=1&i=c86_1285036264
http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2010/09/22/Pubic-schools-billboard-typo-corrected/UPI-11841285192628/
Posted by: vanderleun at February 11, 2014 10:00 AM
I never thought spellcheck would improve writing, since it seemed obvious that (a) it was impossible to make work and (b) it would result in new generations of illiterates who would both depend on the computer and point to its fallacies as the ultimate authority.
When the predictable uproar occurred (this was in the mid-'9os) I replied "Spell 'its'."
Posted by: Rob De Witt at February 11, 2014 11:27 AM
Let me also share my own favorite public idiocy, in response to "Easy Bowels."
Also in the '90s, there was a sign facing the BART platform in San Francisco, advertising station KJAZ. The poster was in the popular-at-that-time style of the logo for the station, with a tag line, superimposed on a grayed-out background of iconic jazzers' names.
As you scanned the roll of Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd and Ornette Coleman and the rest, you came upon the great guitarist "Towel Farlow." In 3-inch type in the most public of places in the Bay Area, seen by thousands every day. It stayed there for the months until the sign was replace by a new advertiser.
We're doomed.
Posted by: Rob De Witt at February 11, 2014 11:48 AM
"until the sign was replaced."
See what I mean?
Posted by: Rob De Witt at February 11, 2014 12:50 PM
It doesn't fit any of their templates, but it is not hard to do:
With the famous church sign generator.
Posted by: Fat Man at February 11, 2014 1:52 PM
About 20 years ago our local yellow pages advertised a golf course as having "18 holes open to the pubic."
Posted by: ed at February 11, 2014 4:50 PM
I don't know what the problem is. I use spill chuck all the time.
Posted by: chasmatic at February 12, 2014 6:43 AM