Is this writer's English vocabulary really this bad or am I being baited?

In this little fluff piece about a boy who holds the record for affixing eating utensils to his face, SF Chronicle writer Steve Rubenstein dropped this beauty:

I’m quite sure he meant pedestr– err…

Never mind.

What the…? I had intended to post this in MPSIMS, it being so municipal and all. I was sure I switched forums. :o

Don’t get all in a blather about it, nobody’s perforated.