Puctu* (for Punctuat* or Pictur*)

Sounding like a philatelist's paradise, the PUC, or Postal Union Congress, is the international meeting of the Universal Postal Union. The congress is held once every four years (though the meetings were cancelled during both World Wars—some things are more important than postage, I guess) in different cities around the world. Members discuss postal services, legislation, politics, and anything else affecting or relating to this sticky issue. The first PUC was held in Bern, Switzerland, in 1874, and drew delegates from 22 nations. Customarily, attendees are presented with stamp albums from each participating country, covering the years since the last congress. We collected six examples of Puctu* in OhioLINK, two for words like picture, and four for words like punctuate. So let's all get together and stamp out this typo today.

(Postal Union Congress £1 stamp, designed by Harold Nelson, 1929, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Iceburg* (for Iceberg*)

Hamburgers may be getting bigger these days (especially those honking hunks of meat, wrapped in yet more meat, piled atop additional meat, by Burger King and its icky ilk), but lettuce or no lettuce and try as they might, they will never match the sheer enormousness of your average iceberg. (Although, when it comes to enormity, that's kind of a different story.) We uncovered eleven of these typos in OhioLINK, seven of which were for the "Carson-Iceburg Wilderness" in California. (One was the intentional "Joke: Iceburgers & Snowball" from the album A Child's Christmas by Susie Tallman and friends.) Thanks to itinerant typo correctors Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson, who served up this excellent example from a restaurant menu ("Iceburg Lettuce") in a recent profile by Bill Geist on CBS News Sunday Morning.

(An iceberg at the edge of the Baffin Bay's sea ice is just one of the many sights three airmen from Thule Air Base, Greenland, witnessed recently during a six-day dog-sledding expedition. From Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Gaurant*, Guarent* (for Guarant*)

I can't always guarantee you a pun-tastic post here; there are days when I simply can't make (non) sense of the typo in play. Guaranty, guarantor, guar gum, sure. But GAUR, GAUR, what begins with GAUR? (And why am I starting to sound like Dr. Seuss?) The truth is, very few words that are not proper nouns begin with the letters G-A-U-R. So few (just two, by my count: gaur, meaning a wild ox; and gaura, meaning a plant from the Evening Primrose family) that it's a bit surprising this particular typo gets made at all. There were only three occurrences of it in OhioLINK (all for the same title) and 55 in WorldCat. Still, that's no guarantee you won't find it your own catalog. (And as proof that it's worth it to keep poking around, even in seemingly barren ground, we eventually turned up 18 cases of Guarent* as well.)

(Gaur at the Toronto Zoo, October 15, 2006, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Phyci*, Pysic* (for Physic*)

What's not to love about a sitcom that features a card catalog as part of the set design? Or where Rock-Paper-Scissors isn't geeky enough for the four young physicists—they have to play a more advanced form of the game called "Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock"? The geekiest of the group is undoubtedly Sheldon Cooper, played by Jim Parsons; Sheldon was recently outed as a person with Asperger's syndrome. However, this theory has been disputed by the show's creator, Chuck Lorre. "It would be a lot of responsibility and it would put up some barriers," Parsons commented. "He is Aspergian, but that allows more freedom." (I think "Aspergian" means he has Asperger's, but I won't tell him if you don't.) There were 23 cases of Phyci* and 20 of Pysic* in OhioLINK last time we checked. These may be typos for a variety of words, though, so be careful when making any corrections.

(Johnny Galecki as Leonard Hofstadter in The Big Bang Theory.)

Carol Reid

Workpal*, Workpace*, etc. (for Workplace* or Workspace*)

I once wrote a bunch of "library limericks," which started one day when I stumbled across the word poetaster, meaning: "writer of mediocre verse; rhymester; would-be poet." Another definition is: "a writer of insignificant, meretricious, or shoddy poetry." It comes from the Latin for poet + aster, which means "pejorative stuff." Although this first one isn't about a librarian, per se, I think we can all relate...

There once was a poor poetaster
Whose boss acted more like his master,
He said, "You're too slow,
If you don’t want to go,
You will have to write worser and faster."

Regardless of the pace at which you work, the library world would be a much better place if you'd all take a moment to look for and fix today's typos. Workplace is a funny word when you stop to think about it, though. It's like calling your bedroom the "sleepplace" ("sleeplace"?) or kitchen the "eatplace." It may sound like a fairly modern word, but according to Random House, its origins date back to the 1820s. While we found two cases of Workpal* in OhioLINK, Workpace* didn't show up at all. We also got one hit on Workspl* (subject heading: "Diversity in the worksplace"). In Google, "workpace" can be a typo for either workplace or workspace, as well as the actual name of a bit of software (WorkPace, tm). WorldCat returns 27 hits on Workpace, only a handful of which look to be typos for workplace. The rest are for the apparently intended word workpace, which does not seem to have made it into the dictionaries yet. So be a pal and work on this one for me, willya?

"I Believe You Have My Red Swingline Stapler," from the Foundphotos file at Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Quesiton* (for Question*)

Lo que es quesito, that is the question. Popular in Puerto Rico, quesito is a "cheese filled pastry twist," according to Wikipedia. The cheese is generally whipped with sugar, eggs, and vanilla, and often contains papaya, guava, or other tropical fruits. The mixture is then wrapped in puff pastry, drenched in caramel, and baked. These sweets are commonly sold in bomboneras, which means "cozy sweet boxes." Ours is not to question why ... quesitos are simply for to die! We found 11 cases of Quesiton* in OhioLINK this morning.

(Papitas arrugadas y quesito, by Luis M. Garcia, from Flickr.)

Carol Reid

Helath* (for Health*)

You don't necessarily have to be a he-man in order to refinish a wall, or even be especially healthy, but for the fortunate remodeler, it's a pleasure to work with plaster and lath. There were 41 instances of Helath* (for health*) in OhioLINK today, and 267 in WorldCat. According to Wikipedia: "The lath and plaster method's popularity declined in the 1950s, as it was replaced by the more efficient drywall." However, as someone who recently watched while layers of paint and wallpaper were painstakingly peeled away to reveal creamy plaster walls constructed in the 1920s, I feel confident in saying that while drywall may be more "efficient," plaster is really preferable. And once it's truly past its prime, you can always make "lath art."

(John Deere House, historic site, food pantry with wall cutaway to demonstrate lath boards beneath, Grand Detour, Illinois, 2007, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid