Bronz (for Bronx or Bronze)

Though my search in OhioLINK for the typo Bronz + Bronx led me down the garden path to a big "Bronx cheer," I did get 27 hits by searching on Bronz alone. Only five, however, were for the typos I had in mind. (Most of them were personal names or else the correct spelling of bronze in Turkish.) In 1913, a series of bronze tablets were erected to commemorate the newly acquired Bronx park system in New York City. Dr. Henry MacCracken, president of the Bronx Society of Arts and Sciences, took the occasion to deliver a memorable speech: "This park of St. Mary's is unique in that it is the only park within 100 miles of our great city that is named after a woman. May not this be a little of the inherited masculine grudge which Adam felt against Eve for having him turned out of the park of Eden? ... Just because St. Mary's is named after a woman and a saint, it makes a demand on the courtesy and chivalry of the boys who enjoy this park to pay honor to their own mothers by taking the best care of it." The Bronx Victory Column, built in 1933, is a 75-foot limestone structure that supports a bronze statue of "Winged Victory." It was originally intended as a memorial to local servicemen and it's proven to be a favorite site for wedding photos. Today's typo seems like an easy mistake to make with your crooked little ring finger, and the Z and the X right next to each other, so it may be a victory of sorts that this one isn't made more often. In any case, it's fun to picture pixilated bridesmaids and ushers urging one another to meet under the Bronx Bronze.

("The Bronx Victory Column and Memorial Grove in Pelham Bay Park on a sunny midday," by Jim Henderson, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Cheif*, etc. (for Chief)

Cheif* appears 168 times in OhioLINK, Cheif 51 times, and Cheifly 20 times. (Caveat: Punk band The Cheifs apparently spells it just so.) While scouting out a picture to go with today's typo, I felt "chiefly ill" to read about the Comanche chief known as "Shaking Hand" and the U.S. Army assault upon his people under Colonel Ranald S. MacKenzie. (One can't help but wonder if Shaking Hand was called that because he was a peace-pipe-passing glad-hander or because he was beset by fears and tremors. Or perhaps it was for another reason entirely: his son claimed that the name, which might be better translated as "push aside," referred to the time his father used a hunting knife to kill a bear who had mauled his companion.) If your hand shakes, you'll want to keep an eye on your e's and i's and make certain all your circles are carefully drawn. Wagons were drawn in a circle on Sept. 20, 1872, during the massacre of an Indian village near San Antonio, Texas. After nightfall, the natives charged their captors and stampeded the horses, freeing Shaking Hand and some others—but at least fifty villagers were killed and 130 women and children taken prisoner. A white captive at the time, Clinton L. Smith, later described the bloody attack, writing: "After what I had seen that day I was mad all over, and was willing to risk anything to get even with the soldiers..."

(Mo'o-wai, aka Shaking Hand, chief of the Kotsoteka, circa 1874, photographed by William S. Soule, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Loathesome (for Loathsome)

Milo Minderbinder, from Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, is a particularly loathsome character. WWII mess hall officer Milo began his capitalist ventures by selling eggs to the army for a tidy profit, and moved on to double dealing with American and German armies. This resulted in the bombing of Milo’s own squadron and the deaths of his fellow soldiers. Moreover, Milo didn't draw the line at selling the army's supplies. During a bombing raid, Yossarian searches for morphine to ease the pain of a mortally wounded soldier. He finds no Syrettes in the morphine kit, only the note “What is good for M & M Enterprises is good for the country”, a parody of General Motors President Charles Wilson’s misquoted statement “What is good for GM is good for the country.”

Loathesome appears 3 times in OhioLINK, placing in the low probability category on the Ballard List.

(Eggs from Flickr)

Janelle Fore

Zonderva, Zondevan (for Zondervan)

Zondervan is a Christian publishing company based out of Grand Rapids, Michigan, a subsidiary of HarperCollins Publishers. Founded in 1931 by Dutch-American brothers Pat and Bernie Zondervan, the company began as a small operation that sold remaindered books. Today, Zondervan employs over 64,000 people. Current publications include Inspired by...The Bible Experience : The Complete Bible, an audio performance featuring well-known actors such as Cuba Gooding, Jr., Denzel Washington and Bishop T.D. Jakes, the New York Times bestseller The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren, and the popular children's series, VeggieTales.

Zonderva and Zondevan are a low-probability typos on the Ballard list, appearing one or two times in OhioLINK.

(VeggieTales Bible cover from Zondervan website)

Janelle Fore

Sweee* (for Sweet, etc.)

Urban Dictionary defines sweet as “An intensive used to express satisfaction, acceptance, pleasure, excellence, exaltation, approval, awe, or reverence. When used individually, the level of satisfaction expressed is most often directly proportionate to the duration of the vowel sound.” For examples of this vernacular, consult Dude, Where’s My Car, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Wayne’s World, or any comedy film that features two best slacker buds.

Sweee* is a moderate probability typo on the Ballard List and appears 10 times in OhioLINK. A few of these hits have turned up excellent titles such as Dude, you can do it! : how to build a sweeet PC. Others seem to be totally bogus content notes and should be corrected with the item in hand.

A title search for the meme "Dude, where's my" in WorldCat results in 102 hits. Among the quested-for items: country, theory, debate, spaceship, year, horse, jetpack, bailout, etc.

(Dude, Where's My Car screenshot from TV Guide)

Janelle Fore

Fomat* (for Format, etc.)

With the introduction of the VCR in the early seventies, consumers faced a dilemma in choosing the format of their videocassette tapes. The top two contenders were VHS, marketed by JVC, and Betamax, developed by Sony. Even though the quality of Betamax was superior to VHS, VHS eventually won the format war. Some of the drawbacks of Betamax included the higher cost and one-hour recording capacity. Viewers preferred the longer recording capacity of VHS to tape movies and sports events, and were willing to sacrifice quality for quantity.

Without the VHS tape, there probably wouldn't be surviving copies of the Star Wars Holiday Special (1978), as it has never been officially released. Transferred from VHS home recordings to various formats, it has survived to the Youtube age. Celebrate "Life Day" at your own risk.

Fomat is a moderate probability typo on the Ballard List, and appears 8 times in OhioLINK.

(Betamax tape, from Wikimedia Commons)

Janelle Fore

Flannery O'Conner (for Flannery O'Connor)

The peafowl (female--peahen, male--peacock) is an aloof bird, a breed that doesn't mix well with others. Iridescent and multicolored, the peacock symbolizes the sin of vanity. Conversely, it symbolizes wisdom and truth, the markings on its plumage resembling all-seeing eyes. The American Southern novelist Flannery O’Connor admired these regal creatures, and kept as many as forty of them at her ancestral home in Milledgeville, Georgia. A reoccurring theme in O’Connor’s work is that her vanity-driven characters experience a grotesque, sudden, and violent “moment of grace” -- an instant where the mind’s eye is opened.

Flannery O’Conner appears 12 times in OhioLink, a moderate probability typo on the Ballard List.

When O'Connor's friend scolded his young daughter for chasing her peacocks, O’Connor told him to let her go. “She won’t catch them unless they want her to.”

(Quote from Flannery O’Connor : In Celebration of a Genius, edited by Sarah Gordon. Peacock tail, Wikimedia Commons)

Janelle Fore