Decmeber (for December)

"Men are April when they woo, December when they wed. Maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives," according to William Shakespeare. Lest we be accused of making much ado about nothing, the error Decmeber is on the C list at Typographical Errors in Library Databases, meaning that it was found at least 8 but not more than 15 times in OhioLINK at the time of its discovery. More to the point, it is present in nearly 250 records in WorldCat, so there is a fair chance that it is lurking in your catalog. It is not found in our online catalog at Quinnipiac University, but you can find 11 hits at the Library of Congress.

Today's photo is a closeup of a Macy's window in 2005. The original can be found at www.pbase.com/terryballard/image/53993486

Citiy (for City)

“No city invites the heart to come to life as San Francisco does. Arrival in San Francisco is an experience in living.” This was said by William Saroyan, and I'll vouch for the fact that these words are still true today. Citiy is a fairly unusual typo - by being an added letter in a short word it goes against the classic pattern of opac typos: missing letters in long words. That is why it only makes it to the 'E' list on Typographical Errors in Library Databases at faculty.quinnipiac.edu/libraries/tballard/typoscomplete.html. We only saw 22 hits today in WorldCat, which is on target for an E list entry, but there were more than 100,000 in Google, so it is a more common typo than its library presence would suggest.

Today's photograph shows the North Beach section of San Francisco taken by an out-of-breath photographer at the top of Telegraph Hill. The original can be found at http://www.pbase.com/image/79149698.jpg

Opea* (for Operations, Opera, etc.)

When my father was a little boy and a picky eater, he would often drop his peas down a hole in the leg of the dining room table. Out of sight, out of mind, it seems, although apparently there arose quite a clatter when the table was dismantled one day and the desicated peas were thus discovered. In any event, this was not the first time the lowly legume had been incorporated into a piece of furniture. I hated peas too, but I loved "The Princess and the Pea," in which the former's suitability as a royal spouse hung on her sensitivity to the latter, strategically placed beneath a pile of quilts on the guest bed. "So the prince took her to be his wife, for now he was sure that he had found a real princess, and the pea was put into the Museum, where it may still be seen if no one has stolen it..." Opea* shows up 17 times in OhioLINK, ranking it "high probability" for words like operations, opera, etc.

(Illustration by Edmund Dulac of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Princess and Pea," from childhoodreading.com.)

P.S. The great folk and blues musician Odetta passed away this week. Asked one time about being single and growing older, she told an interviewer: "Men are like peas ... I’ve had enough peas."

Carol Reid

Agian (for Again)

We met this typo in July of 2007 and today we're meeting it again. Vera Lynn sings "We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when, but I know we'll meet again some sunny day"—while Slim Pickens ironically navigates a nuke to the end of the earth—at the close of Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. While the results of today's meeting are not nearly as calamitous for humanity, Agian does turn up 15 times in OhioLINK, making it a typo of "moderate to high probability" on the Ballard list. So, once again, search your OPACs carefully and take the bombs away.

(Vera Lynn entertaining factory workers, from the Stanway Primary School's "Women at War" website.)

Carol Reid

Heath (for Health)

Chocolate contains a lot of antioxidants, flavonoids, and other healthful components, and the Heath bar was initially sold as virtual health food, with one early ad declaring: "Eat Heath for health!" The wrapper design remains basically unchanged from the 1928 original and may be indulging in a bit of subliminal advertising to boot. According to Wikipedia, it has "the name 'Heath' printed in a distinctive fashion: two very large H's bookending eat." Depending on how you formulate your search, results will vary, but this is definitely a typo of high probability. The problem is that Heath is also a relatively common surname, in addition to being an actual word that means moor or shrub, i.e. "heather." If you're getting too many hits on Heath + Health, try to limit your search in such a way as to exclude Heath in the personal name field. (Searched that way, I got 191 results; without the exclusion, 377.)

(Heath bar, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Condiser* (for Consider, etc.)

Consider this: The typo Condiser* is found nine times in the OhioLINK database, making it a typo of "moderate probability" on the Ballard list. There seems to be no good explanation for this since both the S and the D are on the same side of the keyboard; in fact, they're cozying right up to each other. (Considering that fact, though, perhaps that is the explanation.) In any case, sometimes these things just happen. It would be most considerate of you not to poke fun at this mix-up, but simply to switch the two letters around. Thanking you in advance for your consideration...

("Considerate Christa" doll, wearing a Girl Scout Brownie vest and badge.)

Carol Reid

Minesota, etc. (for Minnesota)

Senate contenders Al Franken and Norm Coleman have been mining for missed and miscounted votes ever since Election Day, each one hoping to ultimately tip the scales in his favor. Coleman campaign attorney Fritz Knaak has called for a "truce" between the two camps, citing an "obscene number of ballots" being challenged in "the recount version of mutually assured destruction," according to the website MinnPost.com. Minesota is the clear winner in the Minnesota typos race, with 16 hits in OhioLINK. (Minnsota, Minnnesota, and Minnestoa are trailing with one, four, and five respectively). Both candidates appear to have high self-esteem, but perhaps only Franken is smiling at himself in the mirror each morning, repeating: "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!"

(Al Franken on the campaign trail, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid