Fun_People Archive
31 Aug
Bits of Bull No. 337

Date: Thu, 31 Aug 95 12:39:41 -0700
From: Peter Langston <psl>
To: Fun_People
Subject: Bits of Bull No. 337

Excerpted-from: BONG Bull No. 337!
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            Copyright (c) 1995 by BONG.  All rights reserved.


SPELLCHECKER BLUES, PART 89.  Andy McCann (mccann@morgan.com observed
WordPerfect's spelling checker's twisting of "Unisys" ("anuses" as an
alternative, among others) and spun it through Word for Windows 6.0.  Some
of the harvest:  unisex, unison, uneasy, nurses, unissue, unsay, unify,
unions, unite, unless, undies, nudism, nudist.
     -- George Russell, desker at the Cape Cod Times in Hyannis, Mass.,
recalled:  "My favorite Spellcheck 'correction' is on the Star's (that would
be the national supermarket tabloid based out of sunny Tarrytown, N.Y.)
ancient and appalling Unix-based copy desk system.  Hitting 'Change' instead
of 'Ignore,' we once puzzled our 4 million loyal subscribers with a Yuletide
reference to Frosty the Samoan."
	...

OTHER GUYS GET CORRECTIONS TOO.  Found in an Internet [Usenet? -psl] group:
"I found the following correction in the Aug. 14 New Yorker:
     "Rough Trade.  Editor's Note: A mistake made by a transcription service
mangled a quotation from William Bennett in Michael Kelly's July 17 Letter
from Washington.  In criticizing the political views of Patrick Buchanan,
Mr.  Bennett said' 'it's a real us-and-them kind of thing,' not, as we
reported, 'it's a real S&M kind of thing.'"
	...

IT ISN'T PRUDENT TO SAY 'FOLD' AROUND NEWSPAPER PEOPLE.  Steve Coe
(Steve@gambler.demon.co.uk) offers, "I`m not a journo, but I find BONG
absolutely hysterical.  I know this story isn't good enough to be included
in your fine list, but I read a few weeks ago about an Italian newspaper
that had gone bankrupt, and you can probably see this coming a mile off,
the headline read 'Italian newspaper to fold.'  Well, I thought it was
funny."
     Gee, Steve, maybe you should think about becoming a journo after all.
Your find would fit into the script of at least 49 TV news shows we know.
With lots of chair swiveling, meatloaf hair-dos, and a co-anchor who retorts
snappily, "Can't top that, Bink!" it's probably worth two, three points,
easy.
	...

THE E&P WEAR INDEX.  The average age of journalists listed in Editor &
Publisher's Aug. 19 obituaries was 71.65, a climb of 2.35 since July 22.

© 1995 Peter Langston