Wiconsin, etc. (for Wisconsin)

Today's typos turn up in OhioLINK only a few times each, but united they make a much stronger showing. We found Wiconsin five times, Wiscosin four times, and Winconsin twice. The people united will never be defeated, declares the old Chilean protest song. But never say never, I guess. The Republicans in the Wisconsin legislature have just stripped the state's civil servants of their collective bargaining rights and essentially declared class warfare on its workers. Oh, and one more little thing: the governor can now dissolve cities, towns, and other elected bodies—those who are having difficulty balancing their budgets without violating union contracts—and replace them with corporations. Teachers are rioting in the streets, for Pete's sake. It's truly a dark day in America, but you can help shine a light on its unfolding history by at least making sure all records relating to it are correctly spelled.

(Union protester in Madison, Wisconsin, capitol building, Feb. 22, 2011, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Progessiv* (for Progressiv*)

As evidenced by the performance of the "Fab 14" (Democratic senators who stood with the unions and against Governor Walker and what some protestors are now calling the "Repugs"), Wisconsin has had a long and proud history of progressivism. But how things are going to go for workers in Iowa, Idaho, Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan at this point is anybody's guess. Robert La Follette, Sr., was a Republican governor, congressman, and senator from Wisconsin in the early twentieth century. He also ran for president on his own "Progressive Party" in 1906 and got 17% of the vote. According to Wikipedia, La Follette is "best remembered as a proponent of progressivism and a vocal opponent of railroad trusts, bossism, World War I, and the League of Nations." He was also the founder of The Progressive, originally called La Follette's Weekly, in 1909. The magazine's name was changed in 1929 and continues to inspire progressives today. There were 30 examples of today's typo in OhioLINK as of this morning, and over 400 in WorldCat.

(Robert La Follette, Sr., ca. 1922-1925, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Genious* (for Genius*)

Some people this week are thinking Charlie Sheen might be a genius. Hmm, could be! Or maybe he's so far beyond sheer geniusness that we need a new word for it: "Sheenius," perhaps? Apparently, Charlie is also a poet (I mean, "Adonis DNA"? Duh!) and has been one for quite a while now. (Check out this "slender volume of his own poetry" published in the late 1980s.) In any case, you can call him a "genius" or even, as he says himself, "grandiose" (which according to the dictionary, is not always an insult or psychiatric diagnosis), just don't spell it Genious*, our not so brilliant typo of the day. We discovered 11 of these winners! in OhioLINK, making it a typo of "moderate probability" on the Ballard list.

(GOD SAVE THE SHEEN, by Alicia Megan Dixon, 2011-03-05, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Signig* (for Significant*, etc.)

It's significant whenever someone dares to read, much less write, much less utter, much much less entitle a book with, the word nigger—but that's exactly what a number of authors, both contemporary and historical, have done. (Witness Carl Van Vechten, Joseph Conrad, and Agatha Christie for some notable examples.) But such books as those, while they employ the word, are not strictly about the word. In more recent years, however, a handful of scholars and others have turned their attentions to the etymology, meaning, and significance of the so-called "N word." Harvard professor Randall Kennedy asserts in Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word that the time has come for this word to be thoroughly re-examined, defused, and demystified. Others fiercely argue for retaining, or even tightening, the taboo against it. In any case, given increasing "literary warrant" for the topic, it seems a reasonable case could be made for authorizing the subject heading: "Nigger (The English Word)." There were 14 cases of Signig* in the OhioLINK database today, virtually all of which were typos for significant or significance.

(Randall Kennedy, from a Google Image search.)

Carol Reid

Steet* + Street* (for Street*)

Yesterday was the 87th birthday of Theodor Geisel, more commonly known as Dr. Seuss. And today was the day I decided to walk down to the DMV on my lunch hour to renew my driver's license. It was cold and crisp and clear out, so I took my digital camera along to photograph the sights—mostly old buildings and trees and pigeons and such, but you never really know what you'll see! A woman with two little kids spied me happily snapping away and asked me (in a not altogether unfriendly way) just what it was I was taking pictures of. Oh, nothing in particular, I replied, just interesting stuff I might see on my way to Motor Vehicles. I should have added that I was paying tribute to Dr. Seuss's very first book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. I was heartened to learn that the author had nearly burned this classic of children's literature after seeing it rejected something like 43 times—but did not. (Vanguard Press, bless its visionary heart, finally published it in 1937.) After talking earlier in the day with a brilliant colleague who is facing the same sort of difficulties, it was good to be reminded that talent and persistence can eventually pay off. We found 29 instances of today's typo in OhioLINK, although a certain number of those involved proper names and other false hits. Stay on track and you should be able to fix a few street signs in your own library's catalog.

(The "Seuss Spruce" growing in the quad of SUNY Geneseo in Geneseo, New York, so named due to its unusual shape and resemblance to one of the fantastical plants envisioned by Dr. Seuss, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Desparat* (for Desperat*)

I was desperate for a typo today and an email correspondent proved equally so, though for a much different reason. So much so, in fact, that he misspelled the crucial word as Desparate and then neglected to use the spell checker before hitting "Send." This simple act of desperation, however, worked out pretty well for both of us. He made his point with urgency and poignancy, and I got my typo. It turned up 64 times in OhioLINK, but a dozen or so of those seem to suggest an antiquated spelling. (I realize I could have written about that top-rated TV show for housewives here—and it's not that I think I'd have to be really desperate to do that—it's just that I've never seen it.)

(Desperate Dan, the British cartoon character, with his faithful pet Dawg in tow and stalked by a life-size version of Minnie the Minx, in Dundee, Scotland. Rumor has it that the citizens of Dundee were asked if they would like a statue of Winston Churchill, but they said they would prefer Desperate Dan.)

Carol Reid

Wordwide (for Worldwide)

There are several contenders for longest word, but what is the widest word in the world? According to the scholarly journal The Monist, volume 25 (1915), Bertrand Russell once wrote: "Whatever may be an object of thought or may occur in any true or false proposition, or can be counted as one, I call a term. This then is the widest word in the philosophical vocabulary." Later on he qualifies that claim by stating: "I shall use the word object in a wider sense than term, to cover both singular and plural, and also cases of ambiguity, such as 'a man.' The fact that a word can be framed with a wider meaning than term raises grave logical problems." Hmmm. Well, I'm no philosopher, by a wide margin, but I have been told that my "search terms are well formed" on the World Wide Web. As for how widespread today's typo is, we found five cases of it in OhioLINK and 78 in WorldCat.

(Portrait of Bertrand Russell, 1950 Nobel Laureate in Literature, image probably taken in the 1930s, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid