Typo of the day for librarians

Capenter* (for Carpenter*)

noreply@blogger.com (librarytypos) — Wed, 23 May 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Writing about Catcher yesterday has put me in mind of another Salinger story, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters. And calling it Catcher has put me in mind of a couple of movies I greatly enjoyed, The Good Girl with Jennifer Anniston (Justine: "Whatcha readin'?" Holden: "Catcher in the Rye ... I'm named after it." Justine: "What's your name? Catcher?") and Down with Love, in which Renée Zellweger's love/anti-love interest is the publishing mogul "Catcher Block." Catcher in the Rye, you've got to admit, is a very catchy title for a book, and so is Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters. The latter is named after a "fragment" of a poem by the ancient Greek poet Sappho, after whom lesbianism itself was named! The titular line goes: "Raise high the roof beam, carpenters. Like Ares comes the bridegroom, taller far than a tall man..." In the Salinger novella (paired with another one, Seymour: An Introduction), Seymour Glass, the Manhattan family's most mysterious and evolved savant, turns out to be a no-show at his own wedding, where his intended, Muriel (a lovely if rather pedestrian "good girl"), patiently awaits. Capenter* (for carpenter*) was found ten times in OhioLINK and 81 times in WorldCat. I won't carp on it, but it'll be a feather in your cap if you can manage to catch a few of these in your own catalog today.

(Fragment of the painting Sappho by Charles Mengin, 1877, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Eliptical* (for Elliptical*)

noreply@blogger.com (librarytypos) — Tue, 22 May 2012 12:00:00 +0000

I've been told that my writing is sometimes confusing. ("I liked what you wrote," a coworker said to me once. "I didn't understand it, but I liked it.") I've also been given to understand that I engage in too many "fits and starts," and have a tendency to "bury the lede" (or should that be lead?) and go off on tangents. I've been criticized as well for stuffing my sentences (with parenthentical comments) and startling the reader with italics. A professor once described my style as "elliptical." One way I try and deal with this, I've noticed, is the frequent use of the phrase "speaking of which," which I deploy as a means of softening the blow that I'm about to deliver by suddenly careening off course. I get this in part, I think, from my onetime idol J. D. Salinger, whose works I devoured as a teenager. I adored the way he wrote and remember in particular a passage from The Catcher in the Rye about a kid at Holden's school who was harassed by both teacher and students for the egregious sin of "digression." Salinger clearly sympathized with his dilemma and brazenly scorned the scolds. Much to the benefit and delight, I might add, of his many devoted fans. But I digress. Speaking of which, today's typo is Eliptical* (for elliptical*), which appears ten times in OhioLINK and 125 times in WorldCat. As an aside, one of the records I came across was for a John Cage recording of Atlas Eclipticalis, a typo twofer since the second word in the title was apparently mistranscribed by the cataloger as both Elipticalis and Elipticals.

(Amanita elliptosperma, August 2008, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol

Tokoyo (for Tokyo)

noreply@blogger.com (librarytypos) — Mon, 21 May 2012 12:00:00 +0000

On May 20th (or 21st—both Wikipedia and the web at large seem uncertain of the exact date) in 1936, Sada Abe was arrested in Tokyo for erotically asphyxiating her lover, Kichizo Ishida, and then cutting off his genitals ("mutilation of a corpse") and carrying them around with her in a handbag. Despite the fact that she supposedly did this for love rather than hate, and that the incident was later widely mythologized by "artists, philosophers, novelists and filmmakers" as being sort of romantic, I nevertheless find the broad smiles all around at the police station to be weirdly disconcerting. In any event, Lorena Bobbitt, step aside; such cases are apparently more common than we might otherwise believe, though thankfully still quite rare (compared to the domestic abuse that generally prompts them). I've got to confess: I started writing about this fascinating tale before I actually contrived a typo to go with it. The usual suspects did not yield any useful information, which is why I finally settled on Tokoyo, rather than something a little more pointed. There were 17 examples in OhioLINK this morning, and 389 in WorldCat. Please keep in mind that Tokoyo is also the name of another female figure in Japanese mythology, and some of these may be referencing her.

(Picture of Sada Abe's arrest in Tokyo, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Demorcra* (for Democra*)

noreply@blogger.com (librarytypos) — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:00:00 +0000

The 2007 South Korean film May 18 (aka Hwaryeohan Hyuga or "Splendid Holiday") tells the tragic and inspiring story of the Gwangju Massacre, in which some estimates say that 1,000-2,000 people were killed in a demonstration against the government on May 18–27, 1980. This typo is considered "low probability" (with two in OhioLINK and 41 in WorldCat) and so are the odds that democracy will come to South Korea's neighbor to the North anytime soon. But, clearly the longing for freedom is as powerful there as it is anyplace else that people live and breathe. While the word democracy need not be spelled right in order to exist, it certainly helps promote access to published works on the subject. Think globally and act locally today to correct this typo in your own corner of the world.

(Gwangju Democracy Bell, commemorating the Gwangju uprising and massacre, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Antology (for Anthology)

noreply@blogger.com (librarytypos) — Thu, 17 May 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Ants are incredibly industrious creatures and can make quick work of moving large, stationary objects through a sort of united divide-and-conquer strategy. You rarely see them just sitting around like bumps on a log. Although once they've had their way with a luscious green branch, they're likely to leave nothing but chewed up bits of wood in its wake. I love this photo, which looks like something out of a Walt Disney film. The pieces of pretty foliage here look like they're dancing in a sort of procession, with the ants (marvelously constructed to be able to carry many times their own weight) neatly concealed beneath their leafy luggage. Seven instances of Antology are hiding in in plain sight in OhioLINK today (including one marked as [sic] and one as [!]), with another 364 in WorldCat.

(Leafcutter ants transporting leaves, 2008, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Shoppp* (for Shop, Shopper*, Shopping, etc.)

noreply@blogger.com (librarytypos) — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:00:00 +0000

While most of us probably wouldn't care to shop till we drop, or even to be dropping everything just to go shopping, a few overly enthusiastic typos have dropped into the OhioLINK database, OCLC, and probably your own OPAC as well. Stores are great places to look for typos, but don't expect to get your item for free after pointing out a mistake. Many managers seem unmoved by the problem, but I'll bet the one who ordered this sign made had a red (cerise?) face when finally faced with the error. Like a lot of shoppers, today's entry just doesn't know when to quit. However, triple-letter typos are actually quite common: we've written here about Accc*, Agreee, Alll*, Appp*, and Arrr* already, and that's just the A's! You can experiment with other examples on your own; shop around and see what turns up. In the meantime, we found four cases of Shoppp* in OhioLINK—one of which occurs in a record for the 1977 production Lily Tomlin on Stage, "conceived and produced by Jane Waner" (a typo, of course, for Wagner): "Mr. Theatre Goer and Shoppping Bag Lady"—and, oddly enough, only four in WorldCat too.

(Another in the P. I. King photo series. Click image for larger context.)

Carol Reid

Prok* + Pork* (for Pork* or Prok*)

noreply@blogger.com (librarytypos) — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:00:00 +0000

There were only three instances of Prok* + Pork* in OhioLINK today, and only two of them were legitimate typos ("Porkofiev" and "Too much prok for just one fork"). You might want to bear that ratio in mind while searching for this sort of thing locally. Although the relatively small turnout in OCLC (34 hits) meant that I was able to check each one and determine that nearly all of them were typos (mostly of the very same sort and in more or less equal measure: that is, either works concerning the Russian composer or those pertaining to the "other white meat"), save for one clear-cut case of two different people, plus a couple more I really wasn't sure of. Sergei Prokofiev is perhaps best known for having written Peter and the Wolf, a "musical symphony for children," in 1936. And wolves, at least in the world of children's art, are probably best known for liking to eat (the three little) pigs. And if that seems like a bit of a stretch to you, then you try linking the records produced by this combination typo! In any event, it goes to show that it's just as easy to misspell a turn of the century Russian surname as it is to write "Pork" the wrong way on the side of a grocery store in the deep-fried Deep South. Interestingly enough, while there are literally no English words beginning with PROK, this is still an easy typo to make, undoubtedly because so many other English words begin with PRO (about six times as many as those beginning with POR). Be a pro and pore over your own library's catalog for similar examples.

(Click on photo for the larger context. Picture by P. I. King.)

Carol Reid

Contst* (for a variety of words)

noreply@blogger.com (librarytypos) — Mon, 14 May 2012 12:00:00 +0000

There are 15 cases of Contst* in OhioLINK this morning, and 259 in WorldCat. Only one of them, though, is for the word contest* since it seems that today's typo covers quite a bit of ground. As did the Albany Times Union's "Bulbs and Blooms" contest, in which—though I didn't win a prize—I did merit a shout-out and my picture in the paper (or as a friend calls it, an "amused mention"). I happen to have a large collection of "international" trolls dressed in traditional costumes, and when I saw the contest announcement (prizes awarded for the most "creative, humorous [!] or beautiful" photos), I figured I'd set my grinning little Dutch doll down amid the tulips in Washington Park and see what developed. (My new favorite Dutch word is gezellig, a state of mind that to me this picture clearly evokes.) The results came on the heels of Albany's annual Tulip Festival, which was graced with a dollop of gorgeous weather this weekend, along with some plucky but drooping blooms. Note that today's truncated typo represents quite a variety as well, including: Contstitut*, Contstruct*, Contstru*, Contstraint*, Contstant*, and last but not least, Contstantinople, the novelty song about which I coincidentally found myself singing in the car yesterday on the way to visit my mother!

(Foto door mij.)

Carol Reid

Townend + Townsend (for Townsend or Townend)

noreply@blogger.com (librarytypos) — Fri, 11 May 2012 12:00:00 +0000

I love this statue, called "The Hiker," which was erected on July 22, 1928, "in memory of those who served their country in the Spanish American War." It's located in Townsend Park, home to Albany's homeless and site of the Homeless Action Committee's annual Sleep-a-thon in the Park. The area is also known for its chess games, especially after nearby Albany Public Library banned such seditious activity from its own premises. A local police department commander stated that chess playing in Townsend Park made him feel "a little good" and that "it reminds you of what a park really should be." And I've always loved that eccentric spelling for Puerto Rico, while at the same time wondering how such a typo, if that's what it was, could have been carved into this carefully designed monument. (The other sides of the base say: Cuba, Hawaii, and Philippines.) It turns out that this was indeed a typo, but a strangely entrenched one that required correction by the U.S. Congress in 1932. It had been using the spelling Porto Rico in all of its documents since the turn of the century when the United States first acquired the territory. Both spellings had been employed by the media. For example, "Porto" was used in the Treaty of Paris, but "Puerto" was used by the New York Times the very same year. According to Nancy Morris, author of Puerto Rico: Culture, Politics, and Identity: "A curious oversight in the drafting of the Foraker Act caused the name of the island to be officially misspelled." Since the typos Peurto Ric*, Spainish or Spansih, and Memoral* have all been blogged already, I decided to go with Townsend + Townend, two of which were found in OhioLINK today, and 24 in WorldCat. (The overwhelming majority were for the word Townsend, but you may find some for the correctly spelled Townend as well.)

(Picture taken by a friend.)

Carol Reid

Violater* (for Violator*)

noreply@blogger.com (librarytypos) — Thu, 10 May 2012 12:00:00 +0000

I'm starting to feel a bit violated by the signage in and around my building. The motto of New York State is Excelsior (which means "ever upward"), but thankfully this is metaphorical and doesn't involve taking the "Escaltor." Now I see we've got a new sign outside indicating "permit parking." It goes on to say: "Violator's vehicles towed without warning at owner's expense." Call me a prescriptivist if you will, but I still think apostrophes should be properly deployed. It should either be: Violators' ... owners' or Violator's vehicle [no s] ... owner's. I feel like towing the person who made that sign (and the one who signed off on it) somewhere with no warning and giving them a stern lecture, if not an actual ticket. At least they spelled the word violators correctly, which apparently not everyone does. (And then, of course, there can be problems with logic and chronology, as also demonstrated in the sign to the right. Although this may have been intentional humor.) There were eleven cases of Violater* (for violator*) parked in OhioLINK today, and 54 in WorldCat.

(Misspelled sign found at Engrish and Funny Typos.)

Carol Reid

Maurice + Marice (for Maurice, usually)

noreply@blogger.com (librarytypos) — Tue, 08 May 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Maurice Sendak died today, as I'm sure you must all know by now, unless maybe you've been stuck out In the Night Kitchen or perhaps far, far away Where the Wild Things Are. Sendak was 83 years old and by his own account ready to leave this mortal coil and be rejoined with his brother Jack (despite being an atheist, he said, he fully expected to see such a reunion someday) along with his partner of fifty years, Dr. Eugene Glynn. Maurice Sendak was known for making provocative barbs and observations and one time declared: "I would infinitely prefer a daughter. If I had a son, I would leave him at the A&P or some other big advertising place where somebody who needs a kid would find him and he would be all right... Girls are infinitely more complicated than boys and women more than men. And there's no doubt about that. We just don't like to think about it. Certainly the men don't like to think about it. I have lived my whole life with a dream daughter..." This is a bit hard to comprehend given that his characters are almost always boys; however, people of all sexes, ages, and races adore Maurice Sendak. I once knew a little boy who had Wild Things completely memorized before he could even form the words properly: "Where the whaddy wah wah!" he would nightly exclaim. If Sendak had had a daughter, her name might have been Marice, which in the world of bibliographic databases is most likely to be a typo for Maurice. By combining both terms, we found eight examples in OhioLINK (one of which was a case of two correctly spelled names) and 139 in WorldCat.

(President Barack Obama, joined by First Lady Michelle, their daughters, Sasha and Malia, and Michelle Obama's mother, Marian Robinson, prepares to read Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak on Monday, April 13. 2009, to children at the White House Easter Egg Roll, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Brookyn* (Brooklyn*)

noreply@blogger.com (librarytypos) — Mon, 07 May 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Girls just wanna have fun (plus a decent job and a love life), or as Hannah put it her to her putative boyfriend Adam in last night's episode of Girls: "I just want someone who wants to hang out all the time, and thinks I'm the best person in the world, and wants to have sex with just me." Girls, the new HBO sitcom about four 20-something female friends (and the various men in their lives) is set in Brooklyn, New York, and was conceived and often written and directed by Lena Dunham, who first came to the attention of moviegoers with her 2010 film Tiny Furniture. It brooks no nonsense (or maybe it does!) and is somewhat akin to Sex and the City, although these women are probably getting as sick of the comparison as they are of the lousy economy and elusivness of adulthood. It's a fun show to watch, and if thirty minutes a week are not enough for you, you can turn to the "girls" and "boys" of Slate for a thoughtful deconstruction of every episode. We found three examples of Brookyn* in OhioLINK this morning, and 128 in WorldCat.

(Lena Dunham at the 2010 Maryland Film Festival, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Ally + Alley (for Alley or Ally)

noreply@blogger.com (librarytypos) — Fri, 04 May 2012 12:00:00 +0000

I just spied on the desk next to mine a 1978 publication entitled From the Back Wards to the Back Alleys by Paul Harenberg, about the deinstitutionalization of mental patients. (Yikes, that 22-letter word there is enough to make anybody a little crazy! As a matter of fact, a video record for this title in OhioLINK misspells it "deinstitionalization.") But if you tend to spell the word for the little side street (alley) like a supportive friend or colleague (ally), and/or vice versa, you've basically got it backwards. In other words ... oops! Cartoonist V. T. Hamlin (who dropped out of college when his art teacher announced to the class: "Now here's a man with a wonderful talent and he wants to waste it on being a cartoonist!") was the creator of the popular comic strip "Alley Oop," which debuted in 1932 and ran for the next forty years. At its pinnacle, it appeared in 800 newspapers, and is continued by Jack and Carole Bender in more than 600 today. There were six cases of this combination typo in OhioLINK, two of which were false hits (i.e., correct spellings of two different words), and 55 in WorldCat. Ally yourself with your fellow catalogers to look into this situation. I'm sure it won't be a blind alley.

(V.T. Hamlin and his wife, Dorothy, having lunch on a Texas beach in 1928. Note, says Wikipedia, the resemblance of Dorothy to Alley Oop's Ooola.)

Carol Reid

Threee* (for Three, etc.)

noreply@blogger.com (librarytypos) — Thu, 03 May 2012 12:00:00 +0000

"Oh! Hot diggity, dog ziggity, boom, whatcha do to me, it's so new to me, whatcha do to me, hot diggity, dog ziggity, boom, whatcha do to me ... Where have you been all my life?" I dearly love the hot dog vendor that's parked outside my library during the warm summer months, but I got a little extra with my usual toppings today when I noticed not one, nor even two, but fully three typos on their sign. "Big Don's Hot Dog's and more," it read. "Ask us whats for lunch tomarrow!!" We've already blogged about the typo Tomarrow, and misplaced apostrophes are impossible to catch in most database searches, so I decided to look for Threee* instead. I found ten of these in OhioLINK and 315 in WorldCat. Hoo-wheee! I suspect you'll find more than three of these dogs in your own catalogs as well.

(Hot dog stand, West St. and North Moore, Manhattan, photographed by Berenice Abbott, April 8, 1936, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Rennselaer, Rensselear (for Rensselaer*)

noreply@blogger.com (librarytypos) — Wed, 02 May 2012 12:00:00 +0000

According to an article in the Albany Times Union the other day: "You know you're from the Capitol Region if ... you know Rensselaer the city and Rensselaer the county are not pronounced the same." Not every local I spoke to agrees with this assessment, but I do think that I, for one, tend to say Renssel-EAR for the city and RENSS-ler for the county. Although I was firmly informed by a Dutch friend (the Dutch used to own this burg!) that the name is rightly pronounced something like Renssel-ARE. Anyway, forget how it's pronounced for a minute; the real problem for a lot of folks is how it's spelled. The Rensselaer School was started by Stephen Van Rensselaer III, and eventually evolved into Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. The Van Rensselaers were a very prominent family in this area, starting with Kiliaen van Rensselaer, a 17th-century Dutch trader who was instrumental in the founding of New Netherland. There were seven cases of Rennselaer* in OhioLINK, and three of Rensselear. WorldCat turned up 123 and 96 cases apiece.

(Engraving of the original Rensselaer School, located at 703 River Street in Troy. From Arthur James Weise's 1876 History of the City of Troy: from the Expulsion of the Mohegan Indians to the Present Centennial Year of Independence of the United States of America, and Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Internatonal* (for International*)

noreply@blogger.com (librarytypos) — Tue, 01 May 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Today is May Day, which can be celebrated in any number of ways. It's a traditional pagan holiday, for one thing, routinely spent dancing around Maypoles, leaving flowers on a loved one's doorstep (if the recipient catches you at it, you are chased down and made to kiss them), crowning the Queen of the May, and other forms of springtime revelry. In the United States, today is also known as Law Day, on which we commemorate the rule of law. But for many folks around the world, May 1 is International Workers' Day (a national holiday in more than eighty countries), with many places combining the day's "Green Root" (pagan) and "Red Root" (labor) activities. I have a coworker who consistently takes it off from work, but most Americans seem oblivious to this international holiday. Try not to ignore our typo of the day, which was found 44 times in OhioLINK and 796 times in WorldCat.

(Workers Party poster, Donegall Street, Belfast, Northern Ireland, July 2010, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Lable* + Label* (for, usually, Label*)

noreply@blogger.com (librarytypos) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Not everything needs a label, but most things have (and often should have) one. In any case, if you plan on labeling something, you should at least try and make sure it's spelled right. One thing that probably does need a label is Marmite as it might be a little hard to tell what it is without one. Besides, the label on this blackish, brackish, spreadable sticky stuff is actually rather charming: "Roses are red, violets are blue, Marmite, you're brown... & I love you." Apparently it was designed "by Cheryl, age 17 ½." The label also includes a list of ingredients (which kind of reminds me of Woody Allen's request for "alfalfa sprouts and a plate of mashed yeast" in the movie Sleeper), a note that says "with extra folic acid" (in case you've got a new little Marmite eater on the way) and a stamp including both date and exact time packed (e.g., 3:01), followed by the somewhat intriguing advice: "Best before end." Any more questions? You can call the "Marmite loveline free ... Mon–Fri 8.00am to 6.00pm." Though the delectability of Marmite is somewhat debatable (the British company's advertising slogan is remarkably forthright: "Love it or hate it"), I personally know a couple of moderately finicky eaters who nevertheless relish the stuff. There were six wrongly labeled cases of Lable* + Label* in OhioLINK today, and 231 in WorldCat. Lable* by itself yields 29 hits in the former (around a dozen of which were for personal names, such as Lablénie, Lablée, Lable, and Labler, as well as the acronym LABLEX) and "too many records found for your search" in the latter.

(Back label on present UK's Marmite jar without information about supposed glutamic acid-rich character of the yeast extract inside, February 2012, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Bankrupc* (for Bankruptc*)

noreply@blogger.com (librarytypos) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 12:00:00 +0000

It looks like the banks are bankrupting us. (Kind of like the inmates running the asylum.) And by "us" I don't just mean the U.S. The entire world is currently suffering economic implosion at the hands of bankers. It's been a while since we've had a "bank run" in this country, but despite FDIC assurances (and insurance) to the contrary, it could definitely happen again. As a matter of fact, it already has. The worst form of bankruptcy, though, isn't the Chapter 7/11/13 kind, even on a national or global scale. The real problem is moral bankruptcy. If it weren't for unfettered greed, corruption, and class warfare, it's possible we might've been able to solve our financial woes by now. Or at least take a few steps in that direction. This typo is more of a purposeful misspelling, due to the near-silent nature of the letter T here. There were 14 of these in OhioLINK, and 207 in WorldCat.

(Bankrupt Bank (Крах банка) by Vladimir Makovsky, scene of a bank run, 1881, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Betweee* (for Between)

noreply@blogger.com (librarytypos) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Twee, though difficult to define, means cloyingly sweet or aggressively adorable, dainty, quaint, sentimental, etc. A certain strain of "indie pop" is often described as twee. Adults dressed as children are generally considered twee. Practically all of Japanese culture is twee (including their response to nuclear disaster!), a concept perhaps best illustrated by the iconic image known in children's toy stores (and the closets of many grown women) as "Hello Kitty." Kittens of all stripes are almost certain to be twee. Although I've never posted a cat picture before (LOL or otherwise), this was the tweeest (?!) thing I could find today to illustrate this entry. In Dutch, twee means two, so if one too-cute cat isn't quite enough for you, here are a rather twee twee from 1874. There were 30 examples of this typo in OhioLINK, and 430 in WorldCat.

(A particularly cute abandoned kitten, May 2008, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Sidny* (for Sidney*)

noreply@blogger.com (librarytypos) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 12:00:00 +0000

A certain shade of blue is the color of the sky on a cloudless summer's day. It's also the color of inner bliss and enlightenment among certain circles. And it's the color of all of that on this beautiful poster for the moving, controversial, and award-winning film A Patch of Blue, starring Sidney Poitier and Elizabeth Hartman. Hartman plays Selina D'Arcey, who is white, eighteen, and blind, and Poitier plays Gordon Ralfe—who isn't. "Made in 1965 against the backdrop of the growing civil rights movement," says Wikipedia, "the film explores racism from the perspective of 'love is blind'..." Kissing scenes between Poitier and Hartman were cut in order to allow for distribution in the South. The director, Guy Green, insisted on the movie being filmed in black and white, although color was widely used at the time. (Ted Turner successfully "colorized" it later on, but that version was only shown briefly and has not persisted.) A Patch of Blue deals, not only with racism, but other social issues as well: blindness, prostitution, domestic abuse, and rape. It's also, more importantly, about love and redemption. It's one of my favorite Sidney (with an E) movies. There were nine cases of Sidny* for Sidney* in OhioLINK, and 87 in WorldCat.

(Movie poster for A Patch of Blue, from Wikipedia.)

Carol Reid

Experein* (for Experien*)

noreply@blogger.com (librarytypos) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Are you experienced? My own experience as a seeker of typos has been a very enlightening one. In short, I've discovered that typographical errors respect no boundaries. Whether they turn up on a hand-lettered greengrocer's sign or official inscription carved in stone, typos, it seems, are everywhere. And the more ironic they are—appearing, for example, in conjunction with cultural institutions or educational organizations—the better. They're also more egregious the more they cost to make (and fix). For instance, those on professionally made signage or publications are worth more than the kind that can simply be erased, crossed out, or backspaced over. The other day on the bus ride home, I glimpsed a sign out the window for something called the New Birth Christian Fellowship Center that read: "Life Changing Expereince." I wouldn't exactly say my life was changed by the experience, but it definitely made my day. This one reminds me a bit of a misspelling an otherwise bright young relative made not too long ago: he spelled the word atheist athiest. (I'm athy, you're athier, he's athiest!) We found seven cases of today's typo in OhioLINK, and 249 in WorldCat. As experienced catalogers and great typo hunters yourselves, you will undoubtedly find a few of these in your own databases too. Enjoy the experience.

(Album cover for the U.S. version of Are You Experienced by The Jimi Hendrix Experience, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Effice* (for Efficie*)

noreply@blogger.com (librarytypos) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Spring is currently upon us and, the potential for a surprise late season storm notwithstanding, it seems as if we may have dodged a snowball this year. No mountainous drifts to shovel off the steps and driveway, no slipping and sliding as we tentatively try and walk down the street, no whipping winds or effing ice to threaten our footing and rooftops. Other than a rather glacial patience and some salty compounds to sprinkle around when the usual tools aren't doing the job, there's really no terribly efficient way to get rid of ice. You might as well just sit inside with a hot cup of cocoa and enjoy Jack Frost's frigid handiwork. We uncovered 43 cases of Effice* in OhioLINK today (three were correctly spelled examples of the Latin word for do) and a blizzardy 1,007 in WorldCat. Chip away at your own typo formations today while dreaming of the winter that wasn't.

(German icicles, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Extact, Extarct (for Extract*)

noreply@blogger.com (librarytypos) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Most of us recognize vanilla in the form of the familiar, almost medicinal-looking bottle of extract found in practically everyone's kitchen cabinet. However, the wonderfully scented spice also comes as a skinny brown bean pod, as well as a rather luridly lovely member of the orchid family. Oddly enough, the word vanilla has also become synonymous with "bland" or "boring," especially as contrasted with chocolate, which of course is totally unfair. Like the color white, which is not the absence of color, but a combination of all the colors, vanilla ice cream, for example, is not simply some default version of the milk-white dairy product; it simply has the good manners and breeding not to make its presence too obvious. Vanilla possesses a strong and marvelous flavor of its own, but the "plain ol' vanilla" label pejoratively lingers. Let me be perfectly clear, though. I love chocolate (its taste, texture, mood-altering qualities, and checkered past), but when it comes to ice cream, I'm still going to have to go with vanilla. Not only is it just as flavorful, but a little bit of extract and some grated vanilla beans far better preserve the consistency of ice cream than does a large dose of cocoa powder. Even chips and chunks of chocolate do not fare as well in there as one might otherwise hope: the colder chocolate gets, it seems, the less it tastes (and feels) like chocolate. So maybe it's high time we vanilla-philes take a little pride in our preference and lose our "banal, flavorless, humdrum, insipid, vapid, wishy-washy" image. We extracted eight cases of Extact* (and six of Extarct*) from OhioLINK, and 128 and 20, respectively, from WorldCat. Nearly all of them seemed to be typos for extract*, but you may find a few for words like exact* as well.

(Vanilla imperialis, 13 May 2010, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Goverment* (for Government*)

noreply@blogger.com (librarytypos) — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 12:00:00 +0000

A lot of people nowadays think the government is overrun with vermin, and that making the mistake of voting "just encourages them." This point of view is nothing new, however, nor is it limited to a single end of the political spectrum. People have been complaining about the "gummint" for as long as there has been one to complain about. And what better way to say that there's nobody worth voting for than to mount your very own campaign? From redoubtable third-party candidates like Ralph Nader and the early Ron Paul, to comedians and actors like Al "Stuart Smalley" Franken and Al "Grandpa Munster" Lewis, to scores of other democratic DIY-ers, such independent interlopers at least provide more color than the old "one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish" state of the union. (With apologies there to Dr. Seuss, who might well have won had he ever decided to run. In fact, the candidate shown here looks like he could be a character in Dr. Seuss's cabinet.) Goverment* got 220 votes in OhioLINK and "too many records found for your search" in WorldCat.

(Vermin Supreme, an American performance artist, anarchist, and activist known for being a satirical candidate in various local, state, and national elections, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Intord* (for Introd*)

noreply@blogger.com (librarytypos) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Tord Gustavsen is a Norwegian jazz pianist, born in Oslo in 1970. In Tord, so to speak, you have not only a sensitive and talented musician, but also someone deeply devoted to the mysteries of human behavior. Gustavsen studied jazz at the Conservatory of Music Trondheim and jazz theory at the University of Oslo, but got his introduction to psychology as an undergraduate and continues to be fascinated by the subject. He once wrote a "lengthy thesis on the paradoxes of improvisation drawing on the psychological theory of Helm Stierlin and Anne-Lise Løvlie Schibbye." In combining the two disciplines, Gustavsen seems to be gravitating toward the idea that "Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast." Apparently, we human beings are all just works in progress, more or less improvising as we go along. Today's typo (otherwise known as human error) was introduced 57 times to OhioLINK and 882 times to WorldCat.

(Tord Gustavsen, 10 November 2007, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid