The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #118743   Message #2570971
Posted By: Bat Goddess
19-Feb-09 - 12:14 PM
Thread Name: BS: World's best grammatical howlers
Subject: RE: BS: World's best grammatical howlers
Like Janie's "Now Excepting" instead of "Accepting", the majority of the typos I see are not misspellings, but legitimate words -- just the WRONG word, often a homonym or a word that sounds similar.

I was shocked to see "track house" instead of "tract house" in Smithsonian magazine.

I've seen "anecdote" used instead of "antidote" , sight/site/cite confusion, and, of course, two/to/too confusion. One of my favorites was in Milwaukee Magazine in an article about a crowd of rowdies driving around a block and yelling "epitaphs" out the car window at people in front of a house. Spellcheck doesn't catch that sort of thing (or misspellings that are legitimate words).

My favorite AUDIO use of the wrong word was when Boston's "Dapper" O'Neil was being interviewed on WBZ radio. When asked how he got his nickname, he replied that even as a child in a poor family, his mother always made sure he looked "articulate" ... uh huh.

Linn