My corporate overlords have shuttered the offices this week to give all us serfs a much-needed rest, so the last thing I want to be think about during my time (as Mr. Hand in Fast Times at Ridgemont High would call it) is anything that remotely resembles proofreading (which, if you’re new around here, is what I do for a living)… but man, sometimes I just can’t help it. Like when I see a caption on my local news broadcast that’s listing various things you can do to maintain healthy skin and among the bullet-pointed suggestions is something called “Excersize.”
Excersize? Could they possibly have meant exercise? Come on, people, this is not a difficult word! And even if it is beyond the mental capabilities of the interns who are writing the news and the blond-and-blue-eyed announcer-bots who are reading it, doesn’t the text that appears on-screen ever pass through a spell checker?
I don’t expect much from local TV news — too much of the average 20-minute broadcast is devoted to sports, weather, and pointless “cute” banter for any actual news to make it through — but this sort of thing is really just intolerable. Excersize? Good lord…
Yeah…. Sadly, it happens. I still remember when the Draper paper printed these now infamous (well, to Dave W. and to me, anyway) words: “We live in a dessert.” And better yet, the Tri-City Herald in Eastern Washington printed this in giant letters on the front page of their newspaper: “Public Notice”—without the “l”…. Next to that, this is child’s play. >;)
Granted, neither one of those examples would be picked up by a spell checker, but please: Where’s the proofreader? The editor? In both cases, the wording was BIG. Someone really should have seen it.
I suppose if I were enterprising enough, I could collect these various gaffes and use them to sell my services to the offending journalistic organizations… but that would just mean more work for me…
Remember “Satan at the Cache Valley Mall”? That one showed up on Leno.
Oy….
My favorite sign error is still
No shirt
No shoes
No pets
No service