# Noteworthy typos **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 7, 2009, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noteworthy-typos/498974 "2009-06-07T02:09:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noteworthy-typos/498974/21 "2009-06-08T15:56:49Z")
[He’s probably used to it by now.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Wd-Q3F8KM) ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2009, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noteworthy-typos/498974/22 "2009-06-09T23:42:21Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > And let’s not forget our very own **Typo Knig**. 😃 Thnak yuo! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noteworthy-typos/498974/23 "2009-06-10T00:47:23Z")
There was a British book of headline bloopers that predated the Columbia Journalism Review books, Jay Leno’s Headlines collections, and the National Lampoon True Facts collections. It was called **The Bumper Book of Boobs** (“Boobs” being such headline errors, not breasts). One of them was particularly noriceable. It said that a certain rugby team had > [@](#): > > forgotten how to ruck Except that they accidentally put an “f” in place of the “r” in “ruck”. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noteworthy-typos/498974/24 "2009-06-10T00:51:44Z")
I shudder to think of what my grandfather said to the secretary who dared to transcribe the line “the irate customers” as (remembering that this happened in Ireland) “the ira ate customers” :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noteworthy-typos/498974/25 "2009-06-10T02:32:57Z")
I seem to have mislaid my copy of a newspaper retraction apologizing for naming John Smith as the San Luis Obispo county arsonist, when he in fact was the San Luis Obispo county arborist. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noteworthy-typos/498974/26 "2009-06-10T03:07:54Z")
I’m loving these. 😃 Years ago the British government sent a poster out to schools, chastising teachers about the number of school leavers who were still **iliterate**. They clearly hadn’t heard of Gaudere’s law. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Economist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c89c15/32.png) [@Evil\_Economist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Economist)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noteworthy-typos/498974/27 "2009-06-10T04:40:15Z")
Not really a notable typo, but I once read an official document that had been subjected to OCR (optical character recognition). That is, the hard copy of the document had been scanned and the computer had converted the scanned copy into text. So far so good. Except that for some reason every time the computer saw the word ‘arms’ it thought it said ‘anus’. So you got sentences like: “K\_\_\_\_ waved his anus in the air to get attention,” which would probably work. ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noteworthy-typos/498974/28 "2009-06-10T14:23:10Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > The headline in a Green Bay newspaper in 1991 about Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson’s often-used veto power read, “Thompson’s penis a sword”. Maybe it was an article about his pretty well known philandering, instead? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![xnylder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/bbce88/32.png) [@xnylder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xnylder)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noteworthy-typos/498974/29 "2009-06-10T17:37:52Z")
I have a losing scratch lottery ticket from Loto Quebec that lists a possible prize of “100 00 (mille) dollars”\*. (You had to uncover three identical prizes to actually win.) I learned from a news report that the misprint was widespread, but that the tickets were recalled before any winners stepped forward. \*100 00 (one thousand) dollars. ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noteworthy-typos/498974/30 "2009-06-10T20:01:45Z")
Nothing really noteworthy, but recently on a local news web site the text read: “Police fathered evidence…” 😕 After a moment I realized of course they meant police _gathered_ evidence. A quick inspection of the keyboard would further show that the G is next to the F on a standard QWERTY keyboard, and while I’m sure they spell-checked the article, this is an example that shows spell check and even grammar check systems are not perfect. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2009, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noteworthy-typos/498974/31 "2009-06-11T05:19:31Z")
One of my favorites was the AP article when Samuel Alito was in the confirmation process for the Supreme Court that speculated on his motives for [trying to kill the Pope](http://www.angelqueen.org/images/alito/alito_01.jpg) (last sentence). Somehow a line from a separate article about Pope JP2’s would be assassin got redistributed. I’m sure it’s on the internet somewhere but a quick google couldn’t find it: there was an article about 10 years ago in a major northeastern paper (I want to say Boston) that, due to a political correctness feature on their word processing software, announced that through good management and a few cutbacks several departments had, for the first time in years, actually “finished in the African-American”. ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2009, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noteworthy-typos/498974/32 "2009-06-11T11:38:55Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > [He’s probably used to it by now.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Wd-Q3F8KM) Good Og, that’s hysterical - but what was the original word?!?!? ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2009, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noteworthy-typos/498974/33 "2009-06-11T17:51:34Z")
> [@singular1](#): > > Good Og, that’s hysterical - but what was the original word?!?!? Seeing as this is the Count we are talking about, the original word was “count.” ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2009, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noteworthy-typos/498974/34 "2009-06-11T18:33:35Z")
There is the famous typo that caused the Mariner 1 spacecraft to be destroyed. It is usually claimed to be a typo in Fortran, but that doesn’t seem to be the case, but rather one in an equation. [This entry](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariner_1) looks fairly accurate and corresponds to others I’ve seen and some primary sources. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noteworthy-typos/498974/35 "2009-06-11T18:48:22Z")
I mentioned this in another thread. A tray liner at a local McDonald’s had information encouraging parents to have their kids immunized for childhood illnesses, including “whopping couch.” ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2009, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noteworthy-typos/498974/36 "2009-06-11T18:59:30Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > One of my favorites was the AP article when Samuel Alito was in the confirmation process for the Supreme Court that speculated on his motives for [trying to kill the Pope](http://www.angelqueen.org/images/alito/alito_01.jpg) (last sentence). Somehow a line from a separate article about Pope JP2’s would be assassin got redistributed. That’s got a real Onion quality to it. I had forgotten “penis ensues” was originally a typo. It’s a classic. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2009, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noteworthy-typos/498974/37 "2009-06-11T19:16:29Z")
> [@singular1](#): > > Good Og, that’s hysterical - but what was the original word?!?!? “Count”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noteworthy-typos/498974.md?page=1)