Thursday, August 23, 2012

Acobat* (for Acrobat, etc.)

According to the Web site of Tino Wallenda (grandson of the famous Karl), the family Wallenda has been a “traveling circus troupe consisting of acrobats, jugglers, clowns, aerialists and animal trainers” since at least 1780.  In the 20th century, the Wallendas became a household name with their feats of derring-do executed without the protection of a net.  The apex was their seven-person, three-level chair pyramid, which the family performed on the high wire from 1948 until tragedy struck in 1962.  After a long hiatus, the pyramid was resurrected in 1998, and in 2001, the Wallendas surpassed themselves with an eight-person and then a ten-person pyramid, securing a Guinness World Record.  The nickname “Flying Wallendas” is said to have come from a newspaper report of an accident during which “the Wallendas fell so gracefully that it seemed as if they were flying."

There is nothing graceful about the typo Acobat*.  There are two instances of it in OhioLINK, both in reference to the more pedestrian software of that name.

(Nik Wallenda crossing Niagara Falls on a tightrope, June 15, 2012, by Dave Pape, from Wikimedia Commons)

Deb Kulczak   

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