Mistakes & Mishaps Archives - Page 3 of 8

Please, God, bring back copy editors

August 10, 2016 by Scott Flood

If I had one wish for the media, it would be to restore the long-lost position of copy editors — the unseen wizards who made reporters look smarter than they really were and could craft the pithiest of headlines. Had a copy editor been at the desk, Matthew Tully’s July 3 Indianapolis Star column wouldn’t … Read more

EVEN MORE GOOFS AND GAFFES

April 6, 2016 by Scott Flood

I miss the days when newspapers and other media wouldn’t publish a story until it had been edited and edited again. Sadly, expediency has supplanted accuracy, and shrinking budgets have eliminated the copy editors who dispatched typos and other errors from their writers’ dispatches. These days, the only thing protecting writers from themselves is their … Read more

MORE MISTAKES, MISHAPS, AND OUTRIGHT GOOFS

November 18, 2015 by Scott Flood

As you’d expect, the Indiana School Boards Association is an advocate for schools, so it’s no surprise that the Summer 2015 issue of their Journal included an exhortation from the group’s president to get members fired up. But you’ll probably be surprised that she was calling for the group to “lead the fight for pubic … Read more

MISTAKES, MISHAPS & EDUCATIONAL SILLINESS

May 20, 2015 by Scott Flood

One of the most commonly misused word pairs is flare/flair, but it was distressing to see the Indianapolis Star make that mistake in a recent headline. The item was a brief review of a restaurant that serves Latin American cuisine, and the headline read “Brunch with Latin flare”. I assume they meant that the food … Read more

DON’T PARLEZ-VOUS WHEN YOU ESCRIBES

March 11, 2015 by Scott Flood

People like to stick foreign-language phrases and expressions into copy because they think it makes them appear to be intelligent and sophisticated, n’est-ce pas? And it can, except when they either don’t understand the phrase or are unable to spell it correctly. At least once a month, I see someone who has tried to use … Read more

SOME WORDS ARE LIKE CHEAP PAINT JOBS

December 17, 2014December 17, 2014 by Scott Flood

Anyone who ever lived in an apartment or a college dorm knows that toothpaste offers a fast way to hide nail holes and other small injuries to the walls. And anyone who has ever tried to sell a house has probably heard that slapping a quick coat of paint on the walls can make the … Read more

ENDEAVORING YOU TO ENDEAVOR ME

November 12, 2014 by Scott Flood

Remember when Cheap Trick serenaded Budokan with “I endeavor you to endeavor me/I desire you to desire me”? No, you don’t quite remember the lyrics sounding like that? Why did Robin Zander and company sing “I want you to want me/I need you to need me” instead of the substitutions in the last paragraph? … Read more

TYPOS AND MUSTARD STAINS

October 1, 2014 by Scott Flood

Are typos a big deal? True typographical errors, misspellings, incorrect homonyms and the like all get lumped together under the rubric of “typos” these days. Many people seem to accept them the way we’ve come to accept a certain percentage of rodent parts in the processed food we buy. (You do realize that the government … Read more

STILL MORE GOOFS AND GAFFES

July 9, 2014 by Scott Flood

“Will instant replay settle baseball’s furries?” That was the headline on an online story in the Hendricks County Flyer. I didn’t read the story, so I’m not sure whether it was a discussion of arguments between mascots or just a misspelling of “furies.” I’m also not sure if someone stumbled onto a miracle … Read more

ACCURACY IS AN INDICATOR

February 5, 2014 by Scott Flood

To some people, worrying about misspellings and typos is a foolish waste of time. They brush it off as some kind of annoyance or a miniscule matter that isn’t worthy of their attention — and they regard writers, editors, and others who do their best to spot and eliminate those mistakes as “anal retentive.”

My favorite analogy for typos is the sales rep who shows up in a perfectly tailored Armani suit with a dazzling silk tie and a smile to match. His sales pitch is perfect and his product is worthy of your business. But this poor fellow enjoyed a corned-beef sandwich at lunch, and he didn’t notice when a dab of mustard dribbled off the sandwich and onto his tie.