Voluteer* (for Volunteer*)

When trying to get people to do stuff for free, there are several approaches you can take. One, you can appeal to their better natures (this tends to work best with issues both politically correct and precipitous); two, you can supply snacks and other treats to stave off hunger and boredom; and three, you can try and make the job seem a lot more interesting than it really is. A recent message from my community garden group stated that volunteers were needed to stuff envelopes at the office, and ended on an absurdly upbeat note: "If you are available during any of these times and would like to be a part of this exciting opportunity, feel free to email..." I feel like volunteering to teach the person who wrote that desperate plea how to take it down a notch and tell it like it is. Stuffing envelopes may be a necessary task, it could even be considered retro, and it might actually be sort of fun with the right fellow stuffers—but one thing it definitely is not is "exciting." In any case, I didn't exactly jump for joy, and it's hardly pushing the envelope either, but I did find 13 examples of today's typo in OhioLINK, and 155 in WorldCat.

(Mailing junk back to junk mailers, 21 April 2007, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid