Monday, August 19, 2013

Greatful* (for Grateful*)

The Grateful Dead was a really great band, whose jamming would never grate on any of its fans. Some of whom could often be seen standing outside a concert, hopefully waiting for a "miracle" (i.e., a last-minute ticket to a sold-out show). Truthfully, I've never been on either side of the Dead divide, but I was in a new location for an old pizza place the other night when I spotted this slight syntactical error emblazoned on a tip jar: "Donations of any amount are graciously accepted." While I'm not doubting that these guys would be gracious under almost any working conditions, I'm pretty sure the word they meant to use there was gratefully. Today's typo was found seven times in OhioLINK, and 276 times in WorldCat. (The sort of finding I'm always grateful for, though perhaps not always gracious about.)

P.S. A friend, who admires both the Grateful Dead and former Fairport Convention-eer Richard Thompson, tells me that the latter, during a recent gig in Albany, took a longish minute to tune his guitar, murmuring, "I hope it's worth it..." When he finished playing the song, someone in the audience yelled out, "So was it worth it?" Thompson took a beat and then replied: "That's not for me to say, really." (Gracious, if not entirely grateful.)

(John Perry Barlow, erstwhile lyricist for the Grateful Dead, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

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