Partcip* (for Particip*)

From the longing of an infant for its mother's breast, to the lifelong necessity for safe, clean drinking water—be it a gulp, a quaff, a belt, or a sip (there's hardly a smaller part than a sip)—the need to quench one's thirst is a truly universal one. And a participatory one to boot. Potable, as well as portable, water is shockingly hard to come by in many parts of the world, but the problem, at least according to some people, is rather easily solved. In this 2009 TED talk, Michael Pritchard discusses "the portable Lifesaver filter, which can make the most revolting water drinkable in seconds." While most of us decry global warming and the polluting of our lakes, streams, and oceans, we don't need to wait for some sort of global ecological miracle to occur before people in developing countries can start avoiding the dehydration caused by diarrhea, along with various other water-borne diseases. Water filtration or purification systems such as this one can make the difference between life and death. So take a sip from that cup of coffee on your desk, or the office water cooler over in the corner, and ponder how we might all do our part in helping to solve the world-wide water crisis. Then check out today's typo, which was found nine times in OhioLINK, and 576 times in WorldCat.

(Société Industrielle de Photographie (S.I.P.) postcard, 1900s, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid