Bufff* (for Buffalo, etc.)

You think schoolyard bullies and mean girls are bad? Well, did you know Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo? It's true! Or, as Wikipedia explains: "The sentence when parsed reads as a claim that bison who are intimidated by bison are intimidating to bison (at least in the city of Buffalo, impliedly Buffalo, NY)." In other words: Bison from Buffalo (Buffalo buffalo) bison from Buffalo (Buffalo buffalo) intimidate (buffalo) intimidate (buffalo) bison from Buffalo (Buffalo buffalo). What goes around comes around, kiddos! Anyway, try writing that on the blackboard one hundred times. Also, just because it's cool, check out this animated photograph of galloping bison by Eadweard Muybridge. Today's typo is Bufff* (for Buffalo, or perhaps another word). It was found twice in OhioLINK and 52 times in WorldCat.

("Hunting bison in the USA," 1844, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Musue* (for Museum, etc.)

I'm not exactly the standing on a chair screaming type; nor, on the other hand, am I one to welcome the humble Mus musculus (or "house mouse") into my own home without reservations. Few people are, of course, but Dorothy Lathrop, an Albany-based children's author (and winner of the first Caldecott Medal), along with her sister Gertrude, a sculptor, were. They shared quarters with a wide assortment of animals, kind of like Dr. Dolittle did, keeping them both as pets and as models for their art. This unusual living arrangement was paid homage to, appropriately enough, by Kate Spohn, who had once been the women's teenaged gardener, in a book she later wrote called By Word of Mouse. There were 102 instances of Musue* in OhioLINK today, and "too many records found for your search" in WorldCat. There's no need to get out the pesticides and traps just yet, but you will want to muscle these little ones out the door as soon as possible.

(Baby mouse named "Cooky," ca. 2003, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Husdon (for Hudson)

Frederic Church (1826–1900) was a leading member of the "Hudson River School" of landscape painters, a movement founded by his teacher and fellow artist, Thomas Cole. Church spent much of his adult life traveling the world and recording what he saw. He was primarily interested in natural history; his gorgeous paintings are suffused with rich layers of light and shadow. At the age of fifty, Church was afflicted with rheumatoid arthritis. This eventually made painting impossible and the last twenty years of his life were spent decorating Olana, his amazing, Persian-style abode on the Hudson River. As he once proudly stated: "Almost an hour this side of Albany is the Center of the World—I own it." We found five instances of Husdon in the OhioLINK database, and 72 in WorldCat.

(View from Olana in the Snow, 1873, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Communn* (for Community, etc.)

Comedian (or, should you prefer, comedienne) Olivia Munn garnered the plum position of Daily Show correspondent last year, which brought down the wrath of at least a portion of the feminist community. Some women felt she wasn't funny enough, while others suspected she may have gotten there on her looks. (Come on, says Munn, in the Wall Street Journal—the two things don't have to be mutually exclusive.) Feminists have always battled the perception that they lack wit and humor, not to mention the fact that men are not traditionally attracted to funny in a female. Even the great (and hilarious) Christopher Hitchens felt the need to pile on this way in Vanity Fair a few years back. There were eight examples of Communn* in OhioLINK (though the two cases of communn among them, one in French and the other Gaelic, I shall leave to my more foreign-language-fluent colleagues to figure out). Furthermore, WorldCat contained a whopping 225 iterations of this typo. And that's not funny!

(Olivia Munn at the 2007 Comic-Con, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Gallary, Gallaries (for Gallery, Galleries)

According to Wikipedia, the word gallery has numerous meanings and applications. Generally speaking, however, it refers to a room usually used for viewing art, scenery, or performances. It can also describe the people inhabiting such a room, for example, a peanut gallery, which is "an audience that heckles performers." (It's also the name of a band, a song, an album, a disco, a magazine, a fanzine, a hotel, a mall, a cafeteria, etc.—a whole gallery of possibilities.) There were eight examples of Gallary and four of Galleries in OhioLINK today (plus 106 and 55 in WorldCat). Don't let it gall you, but do remove these typos from display at your earliest convenience.

(The Alfred Stieglitz gallery at 291 Fifth Ave., NYC, before 1913, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Ettiquet* (Etiquette)

According to Miss Manners (aka Judith Martin), while it's a bad thing to be rude, it's even worse to call attention to another's lack of etiquette. Martin was born a deferential and detail-oriented Virgo in 1938, and was bred in Washington, D.C., where she continues to reside today. She also lived in various foreign capitals as a youngster, since her father was an economist for the United Nations. She majored in English at Wellesley College and worked as a journalist and theater/film critic before finally becoming the last word in "excruciatingly correct behavior." Ettiquet* has shown up uninvited six times in OhioLINK, and 78 times in WorldCat, so I do hope I'm not being too impolite in pointing that out. Please try and find some time today to discreetly remove this typo from your own catalogs. Thank you very much!

(Miss Manners giving a commencement address on "combining feminism, manners, and professional behavior," May 13, 2006, from Flickr.)

Carol Reid

Invov*, etc. (for Involve, etc.)

It's fun, it's fleeting, it's fanciful, and it's farcical. It's called "Falling in Love" and it can get very involved. (On the other hand, birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it—so how hard can it really be?) Romantic or "courtly" love was apparently invented in either the 12th century (by French troubadours) or the 14th century (by Italian bards), but in any event, it's been with us for a long time. In the charming 2005 collection The Romance of Libraries, one fellow recalls his earliest erotic experience among the stacks, in which he shyly tries to borrow an encyclopedia volume labeled HOW to LUV. We found a few variations on today's typo in the OhioLINK database: Invlov* (three), Involov* (three), and Invov* (12).

(Three lovebirds on a perch, June 12, 2008, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid