Breif (for Brief)

On this last typo-day of the year, allow me to be brief. I’ll merely convey my best wishes for a happy and prosperous 2012 to all.

(Oh, you knew it couldn’t be that simple! Breif is supposed to be a typo of moderate probability, but a search in the OhioLINK database retrieves 73 hits. Many are already marked “[sic],” which means you could reasonably expect the same in your own catalog. Additionally, the Oxford English Dictionary lists “breif” as a variant form, so its usage in older works may be correct.)

(Grape-Shot: 1915 English Magazine Illustration of a Lady Riding a Champagne Cork, from Wikimedia Commons)

Deb Kulczak

Batle* (for Battle, etc.)

Joshua fit the battle of Jericho
Jericho Jericho
Joshua fit the battle of Jericho
And the walls come tumbling down

This popular African-American spiritual is thought to date from the first half of the nineteenth century. On the surface, it portrays the fight of Joshua and the Israelites against Canaan, although its alternate meaning is a promised escape from slavery. The song has been recorded by artists as varied as Mahalia Jackson, the Swingle Singers, Elvis Presley, and actor/musician Hugh Laurie.

Batle* is from the low-probability section of the Ballard list. However, an OhioLINK search limited to English will still pull up more than 400 results. Excluding the legitimate surname Batley will bring it down to a more manageable 15 entries in the quest to isolate true instances of today’s typo.

(The Taking of Jericho, by James Jacques Joseph Tissot, from Wikimedia Commons)

Deb Kulczak

Radiaton* (for Radiation, etc.)

The 19-mile exclusion zone around the site of the abandoned Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine is now home to a thriving wildlife population. In the 25 years since a disastrous meltdown required the government-ordered evacuation of more than 100,000 residents, nature has reclaimed much of the area. But scientists still disagree about how much damage the high levels of radiation have inflicted on local populations of birds, fish, wolves, and other animals.

What is clear is that the region will remain unsafe for human habitation for years to come. And yet some have chosen to return to their villages, willing to take the chance that old age will kill them before radiation-induced cancers or other illnesses can.

Fortunately, radiaton* is not dangerous in an online catalog, merely annoying. It should require little effort to eradicate this low-probability typo. Currently, there are nine entries for it in OhioLINK.

(International symbol for radiation, from Wikimedia Commons)

Deb Kulczak

Smakes (for Snakes)

When American comedian and singer-songwriter Jim Stafford penned his whimsical 1974 hit “(I Don’t Like) Spiders & Snakes,” did he deliberately choose to name two of the fears that commonly afflict us humans? Google “top phobias,” and nearly all the resulting lists feature arachnophobia (fear of spiders), while a fair number also mention ophidiophobia (fear of snakes). In fact, LiveScience calls the fear of snakes one of the most prevalent and suggests it could be evolutionarily imprinted. As for Stafford’s song, it was successful enough to earn a place on Billboard’s Hot 100 Country Songs, a list of the top country songs to appear on its chart during the first 50 years.

Smakes, a lowest-probability typo, is not nearly so ubiquitous as its associated phobia. There is only one entry for it in the OhioLINK database.

(Caravaggio’s Medusa, from Wikimedia Commons)

Deb Kulczak

Pressent, Pressents (for Present, Presents)

Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty-one.

Without doubt, the most humorous Christmas present I received this year was “Lizzie’s Leftovers,” a small tin adorned with this jump-rope rhyme and a portrait of the infamous Ms. Borden herself. Inside was a tasty selection of foil-wrapped chocolate body parts!

I remember well the 1975 made-for-television movie The Legend of Lizzie Borden, in which actress Elizabeth Montgomery played the title role. But until I searched for Lizzie’s portrait on Wikipedia, I had no idea America’s favorite witch might actually have been related to the alleged axe murderess–they were thought to be sixth cousins, once removed.

Pressent appears five times in English-language OhioLINK entries, while a search for Pressents yields one.

(Lizzie Borden, circa 1889, from Wikimedia Commons)

Deb Kulczak

Vladm* + Vladi* (for Vladi* or possibly Vladm*)

One of my very favorite Christopher Hitchens essays concerns one of my all-time favorite novels, Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. In an essay, which appeared in the December 2005 Atlantic, Hitchens begins by saying: "In Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran, in which young female students meet in secret with Xeroxed copies of Nabokov's masterpiece on their often chaste and recently chadored laps, it is at first a surprise to discover how unscandalized the women are. Without exception, it turns out, they concur with Vera Nabokov in finding that the chief elements of the story are 'its beauty and pathos'..." Vladimir Nabokov loved language and butterflies. Regarding the former, please turn to Lolita if you've not yet had the exquisite pleasure. As to the latter, Nabokov was also a lepidopterist who identified and named the Karner Blue Butterfly, a species first spotted in Albany's "Pine Bush," a beautiful and dwindling ecosystem comprising pine barrens, lupines, and little blue butterflies. There were 29 cases of today's typo in OhioLINK and 404 in WorldCat.

(Butterfly drawn by Vladimir Nabokov for his wife Vera, "Christmas 1969," from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Cristmas* (for Christmas*)

The only difference between today's typo and the word for which it stands is the letter H. Which for me this week stands for Hitchens, who famously stood four-square against Christmas. Christopher Hitchens passed away a fortnight ago, but his spirit remains as strong as ever among his many devout followers. He argued fervently against the promotion of religion, the existence of God, and the hypocrisy of many Christians during his final years (his book God Is Not Great came out in 2007) and somehow it seems fitting that his first posthumously published essay should concern the "forced merriment" of Christmas. It seems like it should be one of the happiest days of the year, but then there's always a Hitch. If it's not the compulsory cheer, it's the unrealistic expectations, the crass materialism, the shameless lying to children, the pious bias against non-believers, the holiday-themed Muzak, the drunken mall Santas, the phony flying reindeer, the rock-hard fruitcake, noxious eggnog, hideous sweaters, preening "Christmas letters," etc., etc. Cristmas* was found eight times in OhioLINK and 43 times in WorldCat.

("Where Santa Claus Lives," 1900, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid