Chimp Change
San Francisco, CA
I will not express myself in an excess of verbiage this evening. I don’t actually have a lot to report on from today, other than that I made my official move from Christine’s apartment to Josh’s cousin’s place (Christine’s sister was coming into town), and it is here from Hagar’s that I make my report. The media blitz continues; I had a couple of radio interviews to do in the morning. This first was conducted by a couple of idiots from Iowa, but the second was a grammar show in Minnesota, and I wholly support their mission.
When we met up at a bar, one of Hagar’s friends, Greg, was actually excited to meet me. He’d watched the ABC news clip on Sunday. I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy the moment. Hagar took us along to sushi, which included the crucial cultural component known as the sake bomb. On the way to the restaurant, we came upon a typo that lay beyond dispute, in the window of the iconic video store known as Lost Weekend:
I went inside and ended up speaking with a cashier who seemed defensive of the whole enterprise. As I mentioned “chimpmunks,” the girl being served at the counter snickered, but the cashier gave me a deadpan look and said, “Maybe we just like it that way.”
When I pressed to see if he would allow me to correct the sign, he relented and said to go ahead. I climbed upon the dais in the front of the video store and realized that I had an audience for this correction, as Josh, Hagar, and her friends peered through the glass. I wiped out the m, and then noticed Josh making a smoosh-together motion with his hands. That was when I realized that I had neglected to put in the proofreader’s mark for joining two parts of a word together.
As I wrote in the marks, the cashier stuck his head over the counter and said, “Hey! Those weren’t part of the deal.” His reaction was expressed in a kind of grey fashion that fell between joking and not, so I chose to take it as the former and departed in a succinct manner. The occasion could have merited some minor celebration had I chosen to do so, however. It was, after all, the 100th typo that I as a representative of the League have corrected.
Tomorrow will be our final night in San Francisco, and I imagine that our readers will also be ready to move on to new typo-hunting territory. Soon we will tackle Oregon and Washington, and see how the Pacific Northwest fares in matters orthographic.
Totals
Typos Found: 170
Typos Corrected: 100
April 12th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Water Horse. woe woe woe.
April 12th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
In southern Oregon we have a Chinese restaurant that has a “new ower” and they offer a “three item/comb” for just 5.95 (no $). Another place instructs their large “deliverys” to go to the back office. I’m sure you’d have a great time. If you’re on I-5, check out historic Jacksonville, just 5 miles or so west of Medford - lots of nice little shops to scope for typos. (quotation marks on typos are mine, not present on the actual signs.)
April 12th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
Dear Mr. Deck,
I admire you in your efforts to correct the mistakes visible on signs across the United States. I would like to recommend that you read the poem “A Fence or a Ambulance” by Joseph Matlin (cannot send because of copyright law). Efforts to eliminate the grammatical errors need to be centered in the classrooms for the education of the students. As in Virginia, the educational department on the state level and the local levels have worked for yeas for identifying learning objectives required of the students and the subsequent testing. There are many flaws in the program that is promoted by the education authorities, but they seem not to notice the harm that is being done in the educational process from K-12. The Standards of Learning (SOL’s) are the skeleton on which no meat is being added. For many objectives there is mastery expected on a certain grade level without sufficient practice thereafter for retention.
I will give just two examples. (1) Business ads were submitted by sixth, seventh and eighth graders and published by the local newspaper. The ads contained numerous and various mistakes. When I wrote to the Superintent of the State Department of Education, the response summarized that if mistakes were made by sixth and seventh graders, the skills (which I had identified in my correspondence) were not to be mastered until eighth grade. My view is simply that skills cannot be mastered by a certain grade if not corrected by teachers and practiced correctly prior to the grade level for testing. (2) A brochure published by the school board office contained numerous mistakes. When I identified such mistakes and brought the same to the attention of the superintendent with the suggestion that the brochure be proofread by some one in the English department at the high school, the response given was that such was actually done! Too often letters distributed by the school board office and by teachers contain grammatical mistakes.
I myself notice mistakes quite readily and it bothers me that our education systems do not graduate students who know and can exhibit the basics of the English language. In summary, I feel that such grammatically incorrect mistakes should be brought to the attention of each locality’s education system. Good luck to you in your efforts and have a safe trip home.
April 12th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Could not resist: My Own Corrections: years superintendent, someone
April 12th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
I wanted to help you to find the poem to read and found this website: http://www.donbosco.asn.au/Bulletins/2004/dec/ambo.htm for “A Fence or An Ambulance”
April 12th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
still love your project and started to be on the lookout for typos as well…however, i’m nt brave enough to correct them/tell someone to correct them. as a non-native English speaker i think people will feel offended
*see, that’s the good European education, they start learning languages early!*hehe*
keep it up!
April 13th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
the lack of sun might make for an interesting hunt
in the pacific northwest.
April 17th, 2008 at 7:52 am
Great post. I especially love errors on engravings and carvings. Take this for example: http://spandg.blogspot.com/2007/12/what-epitaph.html
We’ve been following your progress with interest and joy over at GrammarBlog and I’ve finally got round to adding you to our blog roll.
Keep safe,
Gez
August 12th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
fezodsh vzct uljbngmts yfkzwjpxl ulfaos cxiqa cfayeoi
August 12th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
aotmi rzlh fphboid mfnt sfnplxzhy jfvc djwlboya http://www.rkepxamfj.xkap.com