Thursday, November 13, 2008

My favorite typo

Anybody who spends significant time at a keyboard (and seriously, who doesn't these days?) makes typos. Sometimes it's sloppiness, sometimes people just can't spell. My dad was a notoriously horrible speller. He was a cop and one time had to write a report about some pervert looking into women's bedroom windows. In the report he wanted to label the perpetrator a "window peeker". Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you feel about found comedy), what he typed was "window pecker". Yeah, he wasn't exactly Hooked On Phonics. He never really lived that one down either.
I don't mind saying that I've always been a pretty solid speller. As a kid, dad used to call me from the office for spelling assistance. I used to compete in spelling bees and I'm sure my spelling ability was the only thing that saved me in many cases from failing classes in which I was a mess in all other aspects. However, even an admittedly strong speller like myself is not immune to typos. For instance, I am completely incapable of spelling the word "occassion" and it's derivatives without the aid of spellcheck. Misspellings like "rediculous" and "alot" and, well, "mispell" are so common now that typos barely draw a second glance. But I came across one today that absolutely took my breath away. Ready?
"Needles to say"

Isn't that fantastic? Just one dropped letter and it only really works in conjunction with the two other correctly spelled words, but it's soooo beautiful! A single tear of joy rolled silently down my cheek when I saw it. If I ever change the name of this blog, I'm going to start calling it "Needles to say".

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