Instuc* (for Instruc*)

Teachers and other teaching instructors sometimes feel stuck in their jobs. They've either got tenure or they don't; they're bored with the curriculum; they're weary of their students and of "teaching to the test"; they simply want to do something else. (Those who can, do; those who can't, teach, as the rather offensive, but perhaps somewhat persuasive, saying would have it.) Some instructors feel stuck in a tiresome stereotype: I saw an elementary school production of a contemporary adaptation of Alice in Wonderland recently, in which Alice's pedantic tutor went by the colorful name of "Mr. Knowsitallsmartypantsmcfool." Others eventually come to the conclusion that they're just "too cool for school." However, few of them ever get as literally stuck as the one in the book Let's Take Over the Kindergarten, by Richard Hamilton and Sue Heap. Here Miss Tuck gets hopelessly entangled in the indoor jungle gym, until the rambunctious and anarchy-addled youngsters figure out how to work together in order to free their teacher and restore order to the classroom. Instuc* appears 45 times in OhioLINK today.

(Cover of Let's Take Over the Kindergarten, 2007, from Amazon.com.)

Carol Reid

Runway* + Runaway* (for Runaway* or Runway*)

Runaways sometimes become prostitutes, but they rarely become models. Which is not to say a girl or boy couldn't be all three, and perhaps even write a runaway bestseller called From Runaway to Runway: A Whore's Horatio Alger Story. (Okay, I made that one up. My imagination is running away with me.) I found seven hits in OhioLINK on Runway* + Runaway*; however, two were for the song title "Runway Runaway" and one was for a videodisc of the 1938 movie serial about Dick Tracy: "The Runway of Death" and "The Runaway Torpedo." Such compound typo searches often yield useful results, but these generally include some legitimate word hookups, so think carefully before attempting to change either one.

(Cinema quad poster artwork for UK re-issue of Pretty Woman, from Flickr. Coincidentally, Roberts and Gere went on to costar in the 1999 movie Runaway Bride.)

Carol Reid

Annives*, etc. (for Annivers*)

In search of a good gift to bring to a 30th wedding anniversary celebration, I decided to consult one of those lists that tells you what the traditional present should be, based on how many years it's been. One year is paper, five is wood, ten is tin, and so on. I knew that by thirty, the more obvious applications would be out of my price range (plus, I wasn't exactly married to the idea, or to either honoree), but I was still curious what substance three decades of marriage might imply. It turned out to be pearls and, as I'd already been toying with the idea of purchasing a nice selection of tins from our local tea shop, it occurred to me that both "jasmine pearls" and "white tea pearls" might be the perfect affordable offering: deliciously soothing and perfumey, with a wee winking bit of wordplay on the side. Pearl tea is really fun to make too. As you pour hot water over the tiny balled-up leaves, they start to unfurl like little sea monkeys in a floral-scented ocean. Annives* appears ten times in OhioLINK, Annivrs* four times, and Annavers* once. A couple of other variants on today's typo have also been written about here: Aniversary and Anniversay.

(Jasmine pearl tea, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Amoung (for Among)

According to Wikipedia, "Moung is a khum (commune) of Moung Ruessei District in Battambang Province in northwestern Cambodia." And: "The Hmong are an Asian ethnic group from the mountainous regions of Vietnam, Laos ... Thailand [and] southern China." Lush and verdant scenery, colorful costumes, and delicious food await the weary traveler, who understands immediately that he's among friends. There were 75 hits for today's typo in the OhioLINK catalog. Note that amoung is an outdated spelling for among that appeared with some frequency up until the 1920s. Of the first 20 hits in OhioLINK, however, only five or so are on records for books published before that time.

(H'moung kid, from Flickr.)

Carol Reid

Secruit* (for Securit*)

In the 1940 screwball comedy The Bank Dick, W.C. Fields plays Egbert Sousé, an inadvertent security guard who's accorded the post after he accidentally trips up a bank robber. Fields also wrote the screenplay for the film, under the equally screwy nom de plume Mahatma Kane Jeeves—which is, of course, to say, "My hat, my cane, Jeeves" in a fanciful nod to Mohandas Gandhi and P.G. Wodehouse. One imagines that at the end of the day the befuddled Bank Dick might have been ready to say "Screw it!" and add bankers, brokers, embezzlers, and auditors to his list of personal anathemas (one that famously included dogs, women, and children). Somehow or other, though, it all ends happily for the thoroughly soused Sousé. We found five cases of Secruit* in OhioLINK, so let's get on the case pronto. Holes like this need to be plugged up immediately, and I don't just mean with a shot of whiskey and a cigar!

(Promotional poster for The Bank Dick, from Wikipedia.)

Carol Reid

Casualit* (for Casualt*, Causalit*, etc.)

Reluctant readers (some would call them casualties of the public school system) required to rack up a few English credits before they can graduate from college might wish they had something in the course catalog called "Casual Lit." Yeah, that's the ticket. And, yeah, it would have to be lit, not "literature," perhaps even lit lite. And reading it would have to be both quick and easy. ("More fun than Cliff Notes, faster than Clifford Odets!") Maybe a sort of survey thing—some chicklit here, some fanfic there, a graphic novel or two ... perhaps a little Harry Potter, a coupla vampire stories ... some classic Superman, Mad Magazine, Tintin ... or how about that so-called "classic" they made you read in high school and then it turned out you really liked it? ... Or wait, let's see, what about maybe ... Huh? What class do I wanna take? Uhhh, any room left in Casualit*? (Today's typo was found 67 times in the OhioLINK database.)

(Lernender, or "Learning," August 2008, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Sourth* (for South*)

Southern drinks tend to be sweet, or sour, or sweet and sour. After all, citrus fruits and sugar cane both grow in southern climes. And Southern manners (at least according to stereotype) consist of both sweet hospitality ("Honey, chile!") and sour hostility ("Damn yankees!") in more or less equal parts. Southern Comfort is a "whiskey-flavored liqueur" containing honey and lemon and can be used in the making of a whiskey sour. The beverage dates from its earliest manufacture in 1874 and is said to have its origins in New Orleans. It also won the gold medal at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. Southern Comfort now produces "ready to pour cocktails," such as Sweet Tea, Hurricane, and Lemonade—with Southern Comfort Lime primed to debut this summer. Today's typo unites both North and South, giving rise to Sourth*, which appears 22 times in OhioLINK.

(Southern Comfort Lemonade, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid