# Editing mistakes - typos and factual errors you've seen
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-mistakes-typos-and-factual-errors-youve-seen/726996
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 4, 2015, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-mistakes-typos-and-factual-errors-youve-seen/726996 "2015-08-04T18:51:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 7
### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2015, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-mistakes-typos-and-factual-errors-youve-seen/726996/121 "2015-08-30T00:18:22Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#):
>
> My Big Three from television include:
>
> A character on 21 Jump Street saying “I grew up in mun-au-chee” New Jersey. If you grew up there (or had someone call their borough hall), you’d know it’s pronounced MOON-au-kee.
>
> Bernie Mac on a phone call from his sister: “Area code 201? What’s she doing in Atlantic City?” 201 is northern New Jersey. Atlantic City is in area code 609.
>
> Dr. Spencer Reid on the origins of Halloween: \*It’s based on the ancient Celtic holiday of Sam-hain." You’re a genius with computer access. Google it and find out it’s pronounced SOW-een, dumbass.
If we’re talking “verbal typos,” I know of at least one case in a movie where the actress claimed to be from LEE-ma, Ohio, which is actually pronounced LI-ma due to the lima beans grown in the area.
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2015, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-mistakes-typos-and-factual-errors-youve-seen/726996/122 "2015-08-30T20:40:51Z")
It’s probably no fair to pick on an ethnic restaurant’s menu, but the other evening, we went to a Vietnamese restaurant that had some that slight unfamiliarity with the language shouldn’t excuse. Top marks go to item 10 on the menu, under appetizers, “Pancakes.” The description read "Description, " and the price was “$xy.zt”
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### Author:  [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2015, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-mistakes-typos-and-factual-errors-youve-seen/726996/123 "2015-08-31T03:55:38Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#):
>
> My Big Three from television include:
>
> A character on 21 Jump Street saying “I grew up in mun-au-chee” New Jersey. If you grew up there (or had someone call their borough hall), you’d know it’s pronounced MOON-au-kee.
>
> Bernie Mac on a phone call from his sister: “Area code 201? What’s she doing in Atlantic City?” 201 is northern New Jersey. Atlantic City is in area code 609.
And shows that refer to “the 95”.
---
### Author:  [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2016, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-mistakes-typos-and-factual-errors-youve-seen/726996/124 "2016-03-21T21:14:18Z")
Bumping because I just finished reading **World Gone By** by Dennis Lehane. It’s about Gangsters in Tampa during World War II, set in 1942. Late in the book, there’s this exchange:
> [@](#):
>
> "So that’s the plan? Dion said. “Angel, he takes me out through those hills?”
> “Yup.”
> “Where’s the boat?”
> “I assume it’s on the other side of the hills. All I know for sure is it’ll take you to Isla de Pinos. You stay there for a bit. Then someone will pick you up again, take you to Kingston or Belize.”
> “You don’t know which.”
> “Nope. And I don’t want to.”
> “I’ll take Kingston. They speak English there.”
> “You speak Spanish. What difference does it make?”
> “I’m tired of speaking Spanish.”
Uh, yeah - Belize wasn’t called Belize until 1973 - before that it was British Honduras.
And English is, and certainly was in the 40s, the official language. In the 40s they didn’t even teach Spanish - today it’s about 30% Spanish, 70% local English Creole. I’ve been to both countries, and I’ve found that the Creole spoken in Belize is actually easier to understand than either Jamaican Patois or the official Jamaican Standard English.
So maybe some more research could’ve helped on that one.
---
### Author:  [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2016, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-mistakes-typos-and-factual-errors-youve-seen/726996/125 "2016-03-21T21:57:01Z")
I read this one in _Reader’s Digest_.
They meant to refer to a general as “battle-scarred”. It came out as “bottle-scarred”.
Then they published a correction where they referred to him as “battle-scared”.
Regards,
Shodan
PS - a tech writer corrected some documentation I wrote with some meaningless change. I e-mailed back telling her not to be so anal retentive. She responded “anal-retentive” should be hyphenated.
---
### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2016, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-mistakes-typos-and-factual-errors-youve-seen/726996/126 "2016-03-21T22:09:36Z")
Many years ago, I was a professional typesetter, and something I was working on referred to someone having been inspired by Rachmaninoff’s \*Second Violin Concerto. \*I changed it to \*Second Piano Concerto, \*and put a note in the margin, to the effect that Rachmaninoff didn’t write any violin concertos. I have no idea whether the client allowed the change.
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### Author:  [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2016, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-mistakes-typos-and-factual-errors-youve-seen/726996/127 "2016-03-21T22:16:00Z")
Apparently “take a different tact” is the new normal.
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### Author:  [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2016, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-mistakes-typos-and-factual-errors-youve-seen/726996/128 "2016-03-21T22:27:24Z")
> [@crypto](#):
>
> What errors have you spotted that make you shake your head?
I saw an ad in The New Yorker for the School of Design (design!) at Harvard University (Harvard!) that misspelled the school’s name in big bold letters…
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### Author:  [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2016, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-mistakes-typos-and-factual-errors-youve-seen/726996/129 "2016-03-21T23:50:47Z")
Scanning errors are more and more prevalent.
I just read a book on the Russo-Turkish wars, and the scanner consistently read “iu” for “in,” and “Borne” for “Rome.” It also had a weird tendency to add a quote mark to the beginning of capital Ws.
I recently did some scanning of my own, and had to laugh when it replaced “down” with “clown.”
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