Johnny Calvin Brewer helped catch Lee Harvey Oswald. Big deal! Today, I caught an error in a
USA Today blurb. If you read the sentence aloud, it should be an easy one to find. How many times have we typed "and and" or "the the" without even realizing it? Happens to the best of us. That's why we must carefully read what we write, especially if it's going to be published. The the consequences consequences can can be be embarrassing embarrassing.
Microsoft Word will flag these kinds of mistakes. You would think the word processing system the paper uses would do so too. It’s crazy that there are so many easy-to-catch errors in newspapers when they have computers to do this work for them.
ReplyDeleteIndubitably. When I’m using Word and I accidentally type the same word twice, the moment I hit the spacebar, the second appearance of the word is flagged with a red, squiggly underline. It’s pretty hard not to notice. That’s why I find these “repeat offenses” so puzzling. (And why I’m always surprised to find misspellings — when the misspelling doesn’t result in a different, correctly spelled word.) I could see, say, an extra “the” going unnoticed in front of the word “hiding” in the JFK blurb I blogged about because it wouldn’t trigger a red squiggly from Word. Repeated words and misspellings, however, really shouldn’t find their way to print. But they do. They sure do. I have plenty more examples to share. Stay tuned!
DeleteDo you happen to know why Johnny Calvin Brewer was being honored in 2012 for something he did in 1963? Seems a bit bit odd. ;)
ReplyDeleteI did some checking and it seems the tribute occurred so long after JFK’s assassination (48 years to the day, to be exact) in part because Dallas made an effort to move away from the tragedy. When Brown became police chief in 2010, however, the department began revisiting the legacy and history of what took place Nov. 22, 1963. Better late than never, I suppose.
DeleteP.S. Thanks for adding your 25 cents’ worth — i.e. your “two bits.”
Yes, better late than never, indeed. That's so interesting. Thanks for checking up on it for me. :) And you're you're welcome. ;)
ReplyDelete