Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Phoenecian (for Phoenician)


"I love California. I practically grew up in Phoenix." This geographic stretch came from America's 44th Vice President, Dan Quayle. Actually, I want to be fair to Mr. Quayle, speaking as someone who grew up in Phoenix and has lived in exile on the East Coast since 1990. We spent every possible vacation day in California, so there are close ties here. Phoenician can refer to an ancient Mediterranean people, current residents of central Arizona, or a glamorous resort in Scottsdale built by Charles Keating in the 1980's. It is found in the 'C,' or moderate probability section of Typographical Errors in Library Databases at http://faculty.quinnipiac.edu/libraries/tballard/typoscomplete.html, meaning that the error occurred between 8 and 15 times in OhioLINK at the time of its discovery. The root cause of this typo is simply confusion about how the word is spelled.
It even looked right to me, and I should have known better.

Today's photo shows Camelback Mountain and the Papago Buttes from the air. The original can be seen at http://www.pbase.com/terryballard/phoenix





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