Close-captioned (For Closed-captioned)

Closed-captioning is a service sanctioned by the FCC that requires television programs to provide text for the Deaf and hard of hearing. Close-captioned, however, brings to my mind the Close Talker character from the TV series Seinfeld. The Close Talker, Aaron, would position his face mere inches from the person to whom he was speaking. Even though he appeared in only one episode, he is one of the most memorable characters among Seinfeld fans. Perhaps the reason why he is so memorable is that most people would find his behavior very uncomfortable. Ethnologist Desmond Morris reasoned that “All through our childhood we will have been held to be loved and held to be hurt, and anyone who invades our Personal Space when we are adults is, in effect, threatening to extend his behavior into one of these two highly charged areas of human interaction. Even if his motives are clearly neither hostile nor sexual, we still find it hard to suppress our reactions to his close approach.” Concepts of personal space vary from culture to culture.

Close-captioned produces over 300 hits OhioLink, placing it in the Highest Probability section of the Ballard List.

(Picture of U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson from SLENZ blog)

Janelle Fore

Away in a manager (For Away in a manger)

Perhaps the catalogers who made this typo had work-related issues on their mind. Cataloging departments regularly face hurdles such as adjusting to a new or updated version of an integrated library system, and managers have the task of readying their department for change. Theories such as sociologist Kurt Lewin’s Change Theory and psychologist’s Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs help managers understand the processes of change and the motivations of employees. If Eastern philosophy is more your thing, there’s The Art of War by Sun Tzu, a Chinese military handbook that has gained popularity in the West as a model for management. It advises that “to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.”

The phrase “Away in a manager” appears 15 times in OhioLink, placing it in the Moderate Probability section of the Ballard List.

(bamboo binding of The Art of War http://www.flickr.com/photos/bluefootedbooby/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Janelle Fore

Fluro* (for Fluorescent, Fluorine, etc.)

On December 19, 2007, President George W. Bush signed into law a bill banning the incandescent light bulb in the United States by 2014. This century-old workhorse is being replaced by its newer, greener counterpart, the compact fluorescent (CFL) bulb. Australia, Cuba, and other nations have already enacted similar legislation, and the European Union followed suit with a phase-out beginning this past September. Not surprisingly, the change is being met with resistance, and objections range from the quality of the light the bulbs produce to the initial cost of purchasing them to the threat of mercury exposure should they break.

Fluro* is a typo of high probability in the OhioLink database. There are currently 21 English-language entries representing fluorescent, fluoropolymers, fluoroscopy, fluorine, and other words. The typos occur in a mix of transcribed fields, notes, and subject headings, but there should be little controversy over banning them from your own catalog.

(CFL and incandescent light bulbs, from Wikimedia Commons)

Deb Kulczak

Carbohydretes, Carbohyr* (for Carbohydrate, etc.)

Last week, humorist and playwright Paul Rudnick became the envy of carbohydrate junkies everywhere—or at least of those who caught the New York Times article about his new book. In I Shudder, the author “reveals a horrible truth no parent wants published: It is possible, it seems, to live on candy.” In words guaranteed to provoke jealousy, NYT writer David Colman continues:

Mr. Rudnick is the living proof. At 51, 5-foot-10 and an enviably lean 150 pounds, Mr. Rudnick does not square with the inevitable mental image of a man who has barely touched a vegetable other than candy corn in nearly a half-century. Apparently, one can not only live on a dessert island, but can also do it happily and long.

Colman then goes on to describe “a recent, typical day” for Rudnick: “a plain bagel, a three-pack of Yodels, a small can of dry-roasted peanuts, some Hershey’s Kisses, and some breakfast cereal, which he eats by the handful, dry, out of the box.”

Fortunately, library catalogs don’t appear to indulge in carbohydrate errors. Carbohyr* is a lowest-probability typo on the Ballard list with only one entry in the OhioLink database, and the related low-probability form Carbohydretes occurs twice.

(Candy corn, from Wikimedia Commons)

Deb Kulczak

Populaton* (for Population, etc.)

Now that fall is in full swing, so is the population of walking sticks in our neighborhood. Also called stick insects, these interesting creatures belong to the order Phasmatodea, and there are approximately 2,000 species worldwide, most resembling twigs. The North American species Diapheromera femorata can be destructive to oak trees, but we’re far too intrigued to ever dream of harming one. Disney and Pixar must agree, because the cast of characters for the 1998 movie A Bug’s Life includes Slim, a walking stick insect given voice by actor David Hyde Pierce.

If you don’t want to be bugged by typos, find and correct instances of the high-probability Populaton* in your catalog. There are 20 English-language entries in OhioLINK—many in transcribed fields—and an additional subject heading error for a Chinese publication.

(Diapheromera femorata, by Bruce W. Kauffman, Tennessee Department of Agriculture, Bugwood.org)

Deb Kulczak

Disordr* (for Disorder, Disorderly, etc.)

Celiac Disease is a lifelong, inherited autoimmune disorder activated by eating gluten—the proteins found in all forms of wheat (durum, semolina, spelt, kamut, einkorn, faro) and the related grains rye, barley, and triticale. When someone with CD eats foods containing gluten (even tiny amounts), it triggers a toxic reaction causing damage to the small intestine and preventing nutrients from being properly absorbed. Symptoms can include gastrointestinal irregularities, unexplained weight change, anemia, bone or joint pain, depression, irritability, and fatigue.

According to the Celiac Disease Foundation, the disorder affects one out of 133 people in the United States and 1 percent of the population worldwide. Yet 97 percent of them—men, women, and children—remain undiagnosed. Sobering information for those of us who engage in the morning ritual of coffee and a favorite breakfast pastry!

Disordr* is a low-probability typo on the Ballard list with 7 English-language entries in the OhioLink database. However, be careful when making corrections in your own catalog, because most of these appear in records for early English books, when “disordrely practise” and “disordred persons” were apparently common. (According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the modern word derives from the old French verb “desordener”and noun “desordre.”)

(Doughnut by nazreth, from the Stock.XCHNG photo site)

Deb Kulczak

Mxic* (for Mexico, Mexican, etc.)

Today marks the conclusion of the Mexican festival Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), which is celebrated nationwide on November 1-2. According to the Consejo de Promoción Turística de México (Mexico Tourism Board), this holiday is “the most colorful annual festival on the Mexican calendar, commemorating departed loved ones. During this festival, the dead have divine permission to visit friends and relatives on earth. The living welcome the souls of the departed with offerings incorporating their favorite foods and beverages, as well as marigolds and candles. The Day of the Dead celebration is particularly memorable in the states of Oaxaca and Michoacan, as well as in Mexico City.”

With roots in Mexico’s pre-Hispanic days, the festival was originally celebrated during the ninth month of the Aztec calendar (around August) and was dedicated to the goddess Mictecacihuatl, known as “Lady of the Dead.” Later, after the arrival of the Spanish, the festival was moved to coincide with the Roman Catholic feasts of All Saints and All Souls. Common offerings (ofrendas) to the dead include sugar skulls and pan de muerto, a sugary sweet bread decorated with bones.

Mxic* is listed as a typo of low probability, but there are currently 18 English-language instances of it in OhioLink. One is correct (MXIC as an acronym). Another two were baffling until the MARC format was viewed—each record contained a subject heading coded for unspecified thesaurus (650 with second indicator “4” in “MARC speak”), which appears to be indexed, but not displayed, in that catalog. I surmise that most of the other errors can be traced back to the importing of diacritics, because they seem to occur in Spanish language strings where “México” came through as “Mxico.” (The same keyword search limited to Spanish will retrieve other words lacking accented letters.)

(Día de los Muertos in Ocotepec, from Wikimedia Commons)

Deb Kulczak