Mighty Red Pen

It’s a typo made in Manhattan

mighty red pen — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:24:10 +0000

No more pencils, no more books. . . no more typos? We wish.

Ah, poor New York. It’s just the latest place to be hit with the dreaded SHCOOL error. This time it was on a street outside a Manhattan high school. It would be funny if only this mistake didn’t happen quite so often.

The pavement’s since been torn up and replaced, but that doesn’t change the fact that dozens of children have apparently going to shcool since June 2010.

Photo from NBC New York.

The tell-tale typo

mighty red pen — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:32:21 +0000

What’s silver wear, you’re wondering? Is it a new line of cruise wear for the senior set? Is it a cozy for your prized silver teapot?

I wish. In fact, it’s just a garden-variety typo for silverware.

But oh, it’s actually better than that. This typo taunts me every day. Every. Single. Day.

Exercise your apostrophe use

mighty red pen — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 23:00:54 +0000

I happen to know that Camp Retirement, the active seniors living community where I spotted this sign, actually has many, many residents.

Okay, here’s a quick refresher: If only one resident is allowed to use the water fitness equipment, the apostrophe goes between the resident and the s: resident’s. If you have many residents using the equipment, the apostrophe goes after the s: residents’.

Somewhere, someone should have been using their noodle when they reviewed this sign.

As if you need another reason to love books

mighty red pen — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:24:49 +0000

Have you seen “The Joy of Books” yet? You haven’t? Then you must—simply must—take a minute to watch this absolutely and whimsically delightful video of a bookstore coming to life at night.

The video was created by husband and wife Sean Ohlenkamp and Lisa Blonder Ohlenkamp and their team of volunteers, with awesome music by Grayson Matthews. If you enjoyed it, the Ohlenkamps are also responsible for “Organizing the Bookscases,” a similar video done on a much smaller scale with a pair of bookcases. Read an interview with Sean Ohlenkamp.

The elements of stylin’

mighty red pen — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:23:52 +0000

It’s the Elements of Style rap by Columbia grad students Jake Heller and Ben Teitelbaum. What will they think of next?

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Bonus MRP moments

What’s the most embarrassing typo you can make from “herniated disk”? Yeah, that happened (via Bill Walsh).
Check out the American Dialect Society’s 2011 Word of the Year nominees, in such categories as “Most Creative,” “Most Unnecessary,” and “Most Euphemistic.” I’m sure it’s not giving anything away to reveal that occupy took the top honors, although I was kind of partial to kardash and mellencamp.

This error’s got me feeling so Blue … Ivy

mighty red pen — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:29:17 +0000

That ha-ha-thunk sound you hear? That’s the sound of me laughing my head off. And no, it’s not because Beyoncé and Jay-Z named their child Blue Ivy. It’s because of this error, which is such a D-U-M-B copyediting mistake that laughing is the only thing to do.

Here we have an article about Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s new baby girl. As pointed out by the article, some people are confused by the name: Is it Blue Ivy or Ivy Blue?

Okay, we’ve now established it’s Blue Ivy, right? Definitively established that the child’s name is BLUE IVY. Right?

Which is why you have to do a complete double take a few paragraphs later when you arrive at this query:

Um, what do I think of the name Ivy Blue? I don’t know! Who cares? The child’s name is Blue Ivy! Which was well-established several paragraphs earlier! By you!

Somewhere, there’s a copy editor that’s feeling pretty, um, blue.

A nauseating typo

mighty red pen — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:57:27 +0000

Here’s a typo that could turn your stomach (spotted here):

Let’s for a moment set aside the whole I’m nauseous vs. I’m nauseated question (Although, if you’re interested, Grammar Girl has a good explanation, which in brief says it’s generally the rule that if you feel sick, you say I’m nauseated, although people more commonly say I’m nauseous, even though that’s considered wrong, and furthermore, Merriam-Webster dictionary doesn’t think that’s a real rule. It’s enough to make you a little queasy as you try to unravel it.) (So I guess that wasn’t really setting it aside at all.). I think there’s one thing we can agree on without making ourselves sick over it: It’s spelled nauseous and not nautious.

Ugh.

Britney Against the Comma

mighty red pen — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:32:15 +0000

There’s a couple of classic examples out there of the importance of a well-placed comma (Let’s eat Grandma vs. Let’s eat, Grandma, for one, and To my parents, Ayn Rand and God, for another). Here’s my new favorite one:

Okay, here’s the deal: There’s a difference between It’s Britney Bitch! and It’s Britney, Bitch! And I’m assuming that what she intends to do is to address Bitch with the news that It’s Britney, in which case a comma is called for.

But let’s not be hasty. Perhaps she meant that she’s Britney Bitch. Who knows?

Words, words, words

mighty red pen — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 00:20:43 +0000

One thing that was great about the word occupy was that it made both the word of the year lists and the LSSU List of Banished Words.

The LSSU list was sort of limp and uninspired this year, with words such as man cave, ginormous, and baby bump rising to the top of the words that bug people the most. Big whoop. Top vote getter was amazing, which I found kind of amazing.

Check out Stan Carey’s round up of the Word of the Year parade. This year’s horse race got off to a weird start for me when Dictionary.com named tergiversate (which I think I’ve finally figured out how to spell) as its WOTY for for reasons that I’m sure seem well thought out to them. To me, it seemed like the year obviously belonged to occupy, both for its ubiquity and its cultural versatility.

This is not your Betty Crocker cookbook

mighty red pen — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 22:30:55 +0000

Please tell me I’m not the only one who thinks the notion of a cookbook inspired by The Hunger Games is totally bizarre, regardless of how “unofficial” it might be.

From the Amazon page:

“Here’s some advice. Stay alive.” —Haymitch Abernathy

When it comes to The Hunger Games, staying alive means finding food any way possible. Katniss and Gale hunt live game, Peeta’s family survives on the bread they make, and the inhabitants of the Seam work twelve-hour days for a few handfuls of grain—all while the residents of the Capitol gorge themselves on delicacies and desserts to the heart’s desire.

For the first time, you will be able to create delicious recipes from the humble District 12 to the extravagant Capital, including:

French Bread from the Mellark Family Bakery

Katniss’s Favorite Lamb Stew with Dried Plums

Rue’s Roasted Parsnips

Gale’s Bone-Pickin’ Big Game Soup

Capitol-Grade Dark Chocolate Cake

If you’re starving for more from Katniss, Peeta, and Gale, this cookbook is sure to whet your appetite!

Creative? Okay, yeah, sure. The recipes are obviously inspired by a careful read of the books. There are little touches like “Notes from Your Sponsor” that would probably appeal to the diehard fan.

But unbelievably creepy? Hell yeah. This is not Eat, Pray, Love, people, in which a cookbook that ties into the story about a woman who spends a year eating and writing about delicious food might make sense. This is, after all, a cookbook inspired by a series called The Hunger Games, in which the main characters spend the majority of the time starving or trying to figure out how not to starve. It’s a series in which food=power is one of the major themes. The word hunger is a big part of the title. Yes, food is a significant part of the story, but I wouldn’t say that’s in a good way.

I mean, what’s next? The Twilight phlebotomy kit?