Search Results
June 28, 2010 @ 11:41 pm
· Filed under Errors, Language and the media
The latest installment of WNYC's show Radiolab is entitled "Oops," and it's about how we so often get tripped up by the unintended consequences of our actions. Hosts Robert Krulwich and Jad Abumrad brought me in to the studio to share some classic word-processing Oops-es. I talk about various search-and-replace howlers, including the spellchecker-aided miscorrections […]
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April 18, 2010 @ 2:06 pm
· Filed under Errors, Orthography
The Australian branch of Penguin Books is in a certain amount of trouble for publishing a cookbook containing a recipe for tagliatelle with sardines and prosciutto that includes "salt and freshly ground black people".
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April 11, 2010 @ 9:31 am
· Filed under Humor, Language and technology, Lost in translation
Six of us — three philosophers, two linguists, and a mathematician — were having dinner the Café Noir in Providence last Thursday night, and when three of us decided on the excellent boeuf bourguignon, someone at the table told a story of a colleague who tried to include the phrase boeuf bourguignon in a word-processed […]
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March 28, 2010 @ 11:26 am
· Filed under Errors, Language and the media
The Associated Press reports: America's first legal gigolo leaves rural brothel LAS VEGAS — America's first legal male prostitute has left a rural Nevada brothel after a two-month stint that generated plenty of attention but fewer than 10 paying customers. Brothel owner Jim Davis said Friday his Shady Lady Ranch had parted ways with the […]
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March 5, 2010 @ 6:30 am
· Filed under Errors, Silliness
At this page in the Daily WTF you may find a verbatim reproduction of an email in which an office worker told her colleagues: Please be advised- I will be bouncing Nude in 5 minutes. Please let me know if this presents an issue. Presents an issue? It sure does! Does this woman have no […]
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February 11, 2010 @ 12:47 pm
· Filed under Errors, Language and politics, Language and the media, Morphology
Via Talking Points Memo comes this correction from the Los Angeles Times: FOR THE RECORD: Sarah Palin: In some editions of Sunday's Section A, an article about Sarah Palin's speech to the National Tea Party Convention quoted her as saying, "How's that hopey, changing stuff working out for you?" She said, "How's that hopey, changey […]
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February 7, 2010 @ 10:54 am
· Filed under Errors, Orthography, Usage advice, Words words words
Working on a paper today, my partner Barbara found that Microsoft Word objected to her use of the word relativizing as nonexistent or misspelled, and suggested firmly that she should change it to the most plausible nearly similar word: gelatinizing. But she is wise to the extraordinarily bad advice Word gives on spelling and grammar, […]
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January 10, 2010 @ 6:49 am
· Filed under Eggcorns, Orthography, Words words words
"Egbert's, a custom car shop at this location since 1992, specializes in restoring and building unique cars to disconcerting customers", says the website for Egbert's, a company that designs and restores hotrods and collectible cars for street use. I am quite sure that by "to" they meant "for". And although perhaps some of the tattooed […]
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August 26, 2009 @ 9:59 pm
· Filed under ambiguity, Crash blossoms, Language and the media
From John McIntyre: You've heard about the Cupertino. You have seen the eggcorn. You know about the snowclone. Now flourish by trumpets and hautboys we have the crash blossom. At Testy Copy Editors.com, a worthy colleague, Nessie3, posted this headline: Violinist linked to JAL crash blossoms (If this seems a bit opaque, and […]
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July 17, 2009 @ 10:32 pm
· Filed under Errors, Language and the media
When a big news story is breaking, like the passing of Walter Cronkite, it's not surprising that reporters and editors might be a little hasty in getting the word out. Jan Freeman of the Boston Globe spotted a search-and-replace error in the Chicago Tribune's online obituary for Cronkite, where all instances of "Cronkite" got replaced […]
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January 24, 2009 @ 8:13 pm
· Filed under Taboo vocabulary
On the 23rd, the New York Times ran a "fun Friday" piece on British place names that are arguably offensive: Sarah Lyall, "No Snickering: That Road Sign Means Something Else". With photos of signs for Butt Hole Road (South Yorkshire), Pratts Bottom (Kent), and Penistone (South Yorkshire again — no, it's not pronounced the way […]
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December 10, 2008 @ 12:20 pm
· Filed under Errors, Language and the media, Orthography
In its article on Google's year-end "Zeitgeist" listings of the most searched terms, BBC News reports: The things people around the globe have in common are a strong interest in socialising and politics, according to Marissa Mayer, vice president of search at Google. "Social networks compromised four out of the top ten global fastest-rising queries […]
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December 2, 2008 @ 11:08 am
· Filed under Errors, Words words words
It all started with an entry in the "Sic!" section of Michael Quinion's World Wide Words newsletter #614, on 11/22/08 (boldface added): Rachael Weiss found an item on a menu in Turkey: "Aubergine Kebap. Ground veal patties with aborigine arranged on a layer of sauteed pita bread, topped with tomatoes and spices." She observed, "We […]
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