Clearing the Air

I'm not feeling well today. Having trouble breathing. It must be something in the air. No smokers in the house, so that can't be it. Just checked for radon — negative. I didn't find any mold either. This can only mean one thing: Our pollutant culprit is an air-related error.

Here's the air condition we find ourselves in: We're missing an r and have a mysterious character space between the hyphen and air — an open-air situation, if you will.

How could such an "air-or" occur?

My theory: The original version said "indoor air-quality report," and an editor wanted to add a hyphen between indoor and air. Instead of inserting the hyphen after the r, however, he accidentally inserted it in place of the r — and I'm airing it for my readers. It's my duty as a voluntary member of the EPA*.

* No, not the Environmental Protection Agency. The Editorial Protection Agency.