Karma can be a thing of wonder.
Picked up the morning Bulletin off my sidewalk and opened it up to find a P. 1 headline that reads: “How do local kids fair at COCC, Oregon universities?” (Side note: I wish our Web provider would go to downstyle headlines rather than Capping Most Words. But I digress, as usual;-)
Anyway, I chuckled a bit at the prominent typo (they meant how do those students fare not fair) – as I often do when others show they are human, or a group of humans who are not perfect in catching such things (though most of us are always better at catching other folks’ typos than our own. We don’t fall in love with our words, necessarily — but they sure look right to us!)
So I thought I’d blog a bit about the issue today – but before I could get around to doing that, wouldn’t you know but … last night, in writing up a Crime Stoppers story about a stolen painting, I said the thing was 30-by-30 feet.
Whoops.
As one of several article commenters on the screwup pointed out, “30 by 30 feet is a wall.”
Uh, yep. The TV script simply said “30-by-30.” I added the dumb error.
And the other day, in writing up President Obama’s upcoming Oregon visit, I typed “White” but left out “House.”
Heh;-/
Some point out typos kindly, others do so in slamming fashion: “Don’t you have any editors over there?” (Well, yes, but a lot of my online writing is edited by … me. Dangerous, huh?) Or “Don’t you ever use spell check?”
Why yes, but that only goes so far. Spell- or grammar-check wouldn’t catch the wrong measurement term, or the missing word “House.”
For all the technological advances of the world, there’s some things only humans can catch. Or not catch.
So I always try to politely respond, something like “Oy vey, yes, that was bad, sorry, fixed, thanks,” etc.
And many are kind enough to say that, with the volume of words I put out in a day, I do pretty darn well, typo-wise.
To the others, I quote my John Adams High School mentor Chuck Heil’s little coat-lapel button from all those years ago: PBPGINFWMY.
“Please Be Patient – God Is Not Finished With Me Yet.”
You, neither;-)
Leave it to Barney 
John Adams High School???…. as in Queens N.Y. perchance?
Sorry, no, Portland, Oregon. It doesn’t exist any more (the school, not Portland)