# Editing errors in Cecil's column about tornadoes in the US

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-errors-in-cecils-column-about-tornadoes-in-the-us/147958>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [January 11, 2003, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-errors-in-cecils-column-about-tornadoes-in-the-us/147958 "2003-01-11T15:19:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-errors-in-cecils-column-about-tornadoes-in-the-us/147958/1 "2003-01-11T15:19:41Z")

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Link: [Do tornadoes only occur in North America?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_059.html) (6/Aug/1993)

[nitpick mode=ON]  
As pointed out in the recent GQ thread [Tornado’s in the USA only?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=155557), the first sentence in the second paragraph is not a complete sentence: “Roughly 90 percent of U.S. twisters in a 300-mile wide corridor extending from West Texas to Canada.” Also, two sentences later, “most” is probably supposed to be “moist”.  
[/nitpick mode=OFF]

I do realize the irony of this after all the poor attempts at spelling “tornadoes” in the referenced thread, but this is Cecil’s reputation we’re talking about, here.

Since this is most likely **Ed Zotti** ’s fault, I think he should come to the upcoming, in-the-planning-stages ChiDope - currently being planned for May in a MPSIMS thread - as penance. 😃

_runs for cover from the wrath of Zotti_

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**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-errors-in-cecils-column-about-tornadoes-in-the-us/147958/2 "2003-01-11T17:12:54Z")

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These typos are only in the online version of the column – both sentences are correct on page 59 of _Triumph of the Straight Dope_ – just one more reason why it is imperative for all of Cecil’s true followers to purchase written copies of his works.

However, if you want to give Little Ed a hard time about tornadoes, on page 86 of his literary classic, _Know It All!_, he wrote: “there are a few things that always go counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern. Hurricanes and tornadoes, for example.” While this is correct for hurricanes, it is not correct for tornadoes.

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**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-errors-in-cecils-column-about-tornadoes-in-the-us/147958/3 "2003-01-11T17:17:29Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by whitetho \*  
> These typos are only in the online version of the column – both sentences are correct on page 59 of _Triumph of the Straight Dope_ – just one more reason why it is imperative for all of Cecil’s true followers to purchase written copies of his works.

:eek: I have seen the error of my ways!

[sub](So who’s the editor for the online version, can we still blame that on **Ed**?)[/sub]

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2003, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-errors-in-cecils-column-about-tornadoes-in-the-us/147958/4 "2003-01-12T01:18:51Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> (So who’s the editor for the online version, can we still blame that on Ed?)

I would suggest that you have _ferreted_ out the correct weasel.😃

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**Author:** ![Ed\_Zotti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/fbc32d/32.png) [@Ed\_Zotti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ed_Zotti)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2003, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-errors-in-cecils-column-about-tornadoes-in-the-us/147958/5 "2003-01-12T15:16:30Z")

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Fixed. Thanks.
