# Best. typo. ever (at least in a poem from a tiny college in the south) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 25, 2008, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-typo-ever-at-least-in-a-poem-from-a-tiny-college-in-the-south/457715 "2008-07-25T06:19:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![ShadowFacts](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shadowfacts/32/2934_2.png) [@ShadowFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowFacts)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2008, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-typo-ever-at-least-in-a-poem-from-a-tiny-college-in-the-south/457715/41 "2008-07-25T18:56:48Z")
[QUOTE=Hypno-Toad] You should have left off the “b.” [/QUOTE] I know, that was the joke. Too subtle, I guess 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Roland\_Orzabal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2008, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-typo-ever-at-least-in-a-poem-from-a-tiny-college-in-the-south/457715/42 "2008-07-25T19:10:48Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] According to one of the editors “I _did_ google some of the entries, but not that one… frankly I didn’t think it was _good enough_ for anybody to have to plagiarize it.” [/QUOTE] God, what an asshole. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2008, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-typo-ever-at-least-in-a-poem-from-a-tiny-college-in-the-south/457715/43 "2008-07-25T20:24:05Z")
[QUOTE=Roland Orzabal] God, what an asshole. [/QUOTE] Did you mean for that to be a joke? Because that was absolutely BRILLIANT. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2008, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-typo-ever-at-least-in-a-poem-from-a-tiny-college-in-the-south/457715/44 "2008-07-25T21:13:54Z")
[QUOTE=Marley23] That logic is just totally ass-backward. [/QUOTE] Cheeky! ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2008, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-typo-ever-at-least-in-a-poem-from-a-tiny-college-in-the-south/457715/45 "2008-07-25T21:36:46Z")
[QUOTE=Beware of Doug] I suspect the culprit was an OCR program dealing with handwriting - cursive “rm” could very easily become cursive “nu”. Or a xerox (of “Helen Steiner Rice”?). Or deliberate pranksterism. [/QUOTE] I had a temp job once at a legal document processing center, and I can attest that OCR programs are more prone to Freudian slips than you’d think. My absolute favorite involved a malpractice trial about inflatable penile implants. One of the attorneys was named Mr. Shaller. As a rule, the OCR program didn’t have too much trouble with this name – _except_ on the page where the attorneys were having a Very Serious Legal Discussion about penis size. There, it was rendered three times as “Mr. Smaller” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2008, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-typo-ever-at-least-in-a-poem-from-a-tiny-college-in-the-south/457715/46 "2008-07-26T02:26:20Z")
[QUOTE=ShadowFacts] I know, that was the joke. Too subtle, I guess 😛 [/QUOTE] I’m really anal about some things. ---
**Author:** ![Roland\_Orzabal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2008, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-typo-ever-at-least-in-a-poem-from-a-tiny-college-in-the-south/457715/47 "2008-07-26T08:09:02Z")
[QUOTE=ZipperJJ] Did you mean for that to be a joke? Because that was absolutely BRILLIANT. [/QUOTE] I did, and thanks. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2008, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-typo-ever-at-least-in-a-poem-from-a-tiny-college-in-the-south/457715/48 "2008-07-26T22:38:04Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] … one student turned in a poem for an English class and even entered it in the yearly poetry competition here. … Okay, epilogue: Worst part- the student won an award for the original version of the poem- and it’s completely plagiarized. Another student recognized it immediately as something read at a relative’s funeral and it turns out it’s all over the Internet. At least now— it’s a lot more original. (The student, like the subject of “his” poem, is in over his head in deep shit.) [/QUOTE] That’s all pretty scary. That the plagiarising bastard of a student should have the cheek to enter that yukky glurge in a competition (heck, even to submit it to the English class) is alarming, but that the student actually _won_ some sort of prize for this? Oh dear. :eek: Right, I reckon I’ll just go and plagiarise a few works of William McGonagall then, and see what I can win. 🙂 I look forward to a life of literary acclaim and book festivals. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2008, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-typo-ever-at-least-in-a-poem-from-a-tiny-college-in-the-south/457715/49 "2008-07-26T23:03:30Z")
[QUOTE=ShadowFacts] This kid’s version is even more banal than the original. [/QUOTE] I don’t think you need that “b”… :smack: Damn. Too late. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-typo-ever-at-least-in-a-poem-from-a-tiny-college-in-the-south/457715.md?page=2)