Typo!

Happy Day Readers,

In today's world of social networking, emails, texts, and short notes left for friends, family, and delivery persons typos have become a constant occurance. Alas, I am at fault along with everyone. We start failing to edit and pay attention to the world surrounding us.

Now for the fun, at least for those who care. There is a new book addressing this typo curse titled The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World, One Correction at a Time, written by Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson. They start out the book with the definition of orthography from the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. There are three definitions - 1. The art or study of correct spelling according to established usage. 2. The aspect of language study concerned with letters and their sequences in words.  3. A method of representing a language or the sounds of the language by written symbols; spelling.

Sections of the book deal with many regions of our nation. The book also ends with a Field Guide to Typo Avoidance. The authors were fined $3,000 for "vandalizing" (correcting) a sign and ran into different people who would allow corrections or not allow the corrections to be made.

One of the first encounters was "The breezy summer afternoon beckoned to me, so I ambled outside. Maybe I'd seek out a hot dog in Davis Square. But fate intervened between me and that dog. Halfway to my destination, a large white and red object--appalling to my sensitive eye--froze me in my tracks! NO TRESSPASSING (it shows a sign)."  And needless to say, it escalates from there.

For those of us who see all of these little typos and misuses of the written language, this book is truly enjoyable. I have to say "Woot! Woot!" Yes, I have taken that word out of the gaming world.

A must read.

Have a happy and typo free day,

Uber Professor