Friday, April 30, 2010

Electic* (for Electric*, Eclectic)

It's time to begin thinking about mowing the grass, or sowing some seeds, or frolicking in a field, or whatever other springtime activities get you off the couch and out the door—and because of all that, it's time for a little reminder about Lyme disease. This tick-borne illness is not something anybody would ever elect to get, but doctors assure us it's highly treatable if caught early on. And the electric-red rash it produces is virtually unmistakable. (For a much less reassuring, but extremely eye-opening, point of view on this, check out the 2008 documentary Under Our Skin.) Today's "high probability" typo is Electic* and occurs 46 times in OhioLINK. Most of these are for words like electric, but some of them are clearly eclectic.

(From Wikimedia Commons: "This 2007 photograph depicts the pathognomonic erythematous rash in the pattern of a 'bull's-eye,' which manifested at the site of a tick bite on this Maryland woman's posterior right upper arm...")

Carol Reid

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