Writen (for Written)

Our typo of the day looks like it was written on the wind, but a breeze blew away one of its t's. Or perhaps it went up in a puff of smoke. A little over 50 years ago, director Douglas Sirk made a melodrama purportedly based on the killing of tobacco heir Zachary "Smith" Reynolds, a notorious playboy and hothead. Although his death was officially ruled a suicide at the behest of the Reynolds family, many believe Smith was shot by his pregnant bisexual wife Libby Holman and her lover Albert "Ab" Walker. There are 75 hits for Writen in OhioLINK (including a number of "sics," antiquated spellings, and other anomalies), rendering it a "high probability" typo on the Ballard list. (Stock photo of Rock Hudson as the other man, in the movie Written on the Wind.)

Carol Reid