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Friday, August 13, 2010

The Great Typo Hunt

My parents alerted me to this book, by Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson. I couldn't help but buy it because it seems to be about guys who drive around and notice typos. This scenario is very familiar to me (except for the guy part), because I drive around and notice typos. I just started the book and on p. 2 found these two sentences: "My qualifications for the job [copy editor] rested mainly on my ability to ferret out spelling and grammatical mistakes in text. I found that I was a natural, spotting typos with idiot-savant-esque regularity."

I have found a kindred spirit, or two! Have any of you found yourselves driving by and noticing typos?

3 comments:

Anthony - Motojournalism said...

The erudite and entertaining Stephen Fry on just this subject...
Skip to 18:30 to jump right in:
http://www.podbean.com/home/podcast-directory-play.php?eid=2110475

crafterly said...

Seems to be my lot in life. At least I keep my husband entertained...I think ;)
Kinda sad that there is so much material to work with, almost on a daily basis.

Bunnyknows said...

Typos seems to chase me around they almost always jump out at me when driving around. Also, I almost always spot typos on menus when dining out.
Pathetically, I noticed one in a loved one's obituary and until then I had not broken down and cried. I was so mad they had a typo in his obituary it made me cry harder! I was so insulted at the copy editors at our local paper I guess it pushed me over the edge. It was a long time ago and now I can laugh at typo fixation.