Yearbook Supernova
Thursday, June 5th, 2008My roommate, Gene, brought an unfortunate story to my attention today, one that takes place in his beloved home state of Pennsylvania. It seems that one yearbook publishing company got a little too reliant on the crutch of spell-check, bringing about dismaying results.
The name substitutions were bad enough, but note the culpable guy’s reaction. “It happens all the time,” says he. This kind of dismissiveness may strike a familiar note to cherished readers of the Typo Hunt Across America. Everybody makes mistakes, he says, the subtext being So who gives a crap? Well, the poor suckers who were expecting a quality product to commemorate their high-school years, that’s who. I highly doubt that the “free stickers” the publishers are providing to cover over their errors will be sufficient redress. Why not do the decent thing and produce a new print run?
I thought I had seen enough of the country to blacken my heart with the protective burnt crust of cynicism, and yet stories like this still somehow lance through and surprise me with their senseless villainy. Maybe I am an eternal naïf, asking why over and over when I should already know the answer by now.
Anyway, don’t lean on that spell-check. Not just because of the danger described herein, but also because it doesn’t catch homophones. Ewe no eye em write, to!