# Tiny errors that drive you insane **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 29, 2016, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557 "2016-02-29T19:58:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/161 "2016-03-05T21:48:42Z")
Apparently, both his father and his brother are called Lloyd Webber. Perhaps it is like how the brother of Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is known as Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/162 "2016-03-05T21:58:23Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > But…how are we supposed to know this? This is the first time I’ve ever heard a reference to it. It’s a Welsh thing, innit? Like David **Lloyd George**. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/163 "2016-03-05T22:08:06Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Apparently, both his father and his brother are called Lloyd Webber. Perhaps it is like how the brother of Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is known as Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz? No, Ruz was their mother’s (Lina Ruz González) surname. In Spanish, people normally put the father’s surname first, whereas in English using the mother’s maiden name is optional and if used it is either first or hyphenated. Lloyd Webber’s children all would take that full name and not a part of it. Fun fact: Borat’s cousin is a famous neuroscientist, but they spell their names differently, Sacha Baron Cohen and Simon Baron-Cohen. Their children take both names. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/164 "2016-03-05T22:21:37Z")
Similarly, Ralph Vaughan Williams’s last name is Vaughan Williams, not Williams. At least it was. He’s been dead a while. He also pronounced his name “rafe”, so people often get that one doubly wrong. Or triply wrong, since people often spell it Vaughn Williams. Man was a troublemaker. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/165 "2016-03-05T22:36:25Z")
AAUI, the actor who played the mayor who was obsessed with dolphins (and Voldemort) also pronounces his name “Rafe”. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/166 "2016-03-05T22:49:13Z")
Ralph Fiennes played a mayor who was obsessed with Voldemort? ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/167 "2016-03-05T23:09:19Z")
No, just dolphins. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/168 "2016-03-05T23:22:22Z")
> [@Abner\_Ravenwood](#): > > My last name gets mispronounced pretty much by everybody I meet, even right after I say it to them. But it doesn’t bother me that much, seeing as how there are at least three different ways it’s pronounced within the family, and I use one of the “wrong” pronunciations myself. After he joined the Navy my brother got tired of correcting people and started using the incorrect pronunciation (there’s only one in our case) himself. Some years later I moved from a small town where people knew me - and my name - to a city in another state. Like my brother, I got tired of correcting them and now use the mispronounced version. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/169 "2016-03-05T23:57:06Z")
I seem to get a lot of people hearing my surname and wanting to spell it with an “e” in the middle. There is a similar name (even a little more common than mine) that has an “e” in that spot, but the consonant that follows that “e” is completely different. I think there are some people that spell the name like mine with the “e”, but not very many: my surname shows up in the range of 500th-most-common (or thereabouts), the spelling with the “e” does _not_ show up in the top 18000 (list I just looked at on mongabay). I have gotten used to having to spell it out for people. But at least I have never heard it pronounced wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/170 "2016-03-06T00:11:13Z")
I don’t understand how the cops on the “letter” shows would expect the person they are pursuing to know about their “letter crime units” without those shows actually being on TV. “Stop! Halt! This is NCIS!” “Who?” (Keeps running and gets gunned down wrongly because without the show who the heck would know what NCIS is?) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/171 "2016-03-06T00:40:36Z")
> [@Biotop](#): > > Keeps running and gets gunned down wrongly because without the show who the heck would know what NCIS is? Hey, as long as they followed procedure and identified themselves, their asses are covered, aren’t they? Ignorance of the law is no excuse!\* :mad: \*So they say. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/172 "2016-03-06T00:50:18Z")
I always have to explain to people that there is no -s at the end of my last name. My great-great-grandfather had one, but my great-grandfather dropped it, for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/173 "2016-03-06T01:41:58Z")
I just heard another one. One does not stand behind a podium, one stands upon a podium. Those things the Olympic winners stand on? They are podiums. The root pod- means foot, so a podium is where one puts one’s feet. Yes, I know many dictionaries now define podium as a synonym of lectern, but that wasn’t always the case. The one I’m looking at right now doesn’t say a podium and lectern are the same, and is from 1974, which isn’t that long ago. ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/174 "2016-03-06T21:40:45Z")
People running in close quarters, guns blazing, in Musketeer-type stories; but they’ve only got single-shot guns. You saved the (very possibly) only shot for emergencies, not for opening an encounter. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/175 "2016-03-08T22:44:11Z")
Another minor era: Bernie Mac had an episode where his sister called him and left a message for him to call her back. He said “201 area code. What’s she doing in Atlantic City?” Uh, Atlantic City’s area code is 609. I think that fact would be extremely easy to check. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/176 "2016-03-08T23:42:22Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Another minor era: Bernie Mac had an episode where his sister called him and left a message for him to call her back. He said “201 area code. What’s she doing in Atlantic City?” > > Uh, Atlantic City’s area code is 609. I think that fact would be extremely easy to check. Maybe the series takes place before 1958, and they’re hiding it very well? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/177 "2016-03-09T00:00:33Z")
When people use two spaces after a sentence. Grrr… You know the removable boxy thing you put rifle or handgun cartridges in? It is not called a “clip.” It is a magazine. And while we’re at it, you don’t put “bullets” in a gun. You put in rounds or cartridges. Some people like to say something along the lines, “This instrument has a lot of accuracy.” In the world of metrology, we never use the term “accuracy.” We use “uncertainty.” So we would say, “This instrument has very low uncertainty.” When people confuse weight and mass. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/178 "2016-03-09T00:08:15Z")
Careless nitwits who write MBE or QC at the end of my name when a simple Esq. will do. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/179 "2016-03-09T00:16:43Z")
> [@](#): > > When people use two spaces after a sentence. Grrr… That’s how my typing teacher taught us. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557/180 "2016-03-09T01:34:13Z")
In physics, we talk about both accuracy and precision (of an instrument, or an experiment, or calculation, or whatever), but they mean two different things. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-errors-that-drive-you-insane/747557.md?page=10)