Best. Erratum. Ever.

Because they have so many coauthors, one letter wrong in a name led to this. :)

This is quite a correction for the misspelling of one author's name by a single letter. pic.twitter.com/PJgwmETSIj

— Retraction Watch (@RetractionWatch) March 13, 2018

(Tip of the cap to Nalini Joshi, whose 'liking' of this tweet led me to find it.)

Top Spelling Queries by U.S. State

This map of the top spelling queries by U.S. state is great. Notice the fixed point in the northeast! (Also notice the entry for Alaska.)

Note: The article title calls them spelling "mistakes", but it appears instead to be spelling queries.

Grammar and Spelling are Awesome

Yes, yes they are.

(Tip of the cap to George Takei.)

"Tic Tac" is "Kit Kat" Pronounced Sideways

Hmmm... "Tic Tac" is just "Kit Kat" pronounced sideways.

It's too bad that it isn't "Tik Tak", as then it would be spelled sideways as well.

Carl Friedrich "Guass"

According to this BBC article, the mathematician's last name is "Guass". SIGH... and CRINGE.

Also notice the nod to Oxford.

(Tip of the cap to Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.)

"Assess", Not "Asses"

Note to self: Next time, write "assess" in the grant proposal instead of "asses".

Snarkiness with Spelling Mistakes

Here is a website that compiles snarky responses to misspellings on Facebook. Some of the comments are really obnoxious, but they're also really damn funny.

(Tip of the cap to Iain Macmillan.)

What We Should Have Been Taught in High School

Here is The Oatmeal's version of what we should have been taught during senior year in high school. There is a lot of truth here.

And after reading several vivas with tons of elementary English mistakes, I am even more tempted than I might usually be to buy the poster version of 10 Words You Need to Stop Misspelling.

(Tip of the cap to Maria Satterwhite.)

We're all unique.

Can we please use the word "unique" correctly from now on?

As a case in point, consider the sentence "He holds a unique place in the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry since he's one of four men to manage both the teams...", which appears in this article.

Ladies and gentlemen, that means he's explicitly not unique. There are three other people just like him! Damnit. (And get off of my lawn!)

And in other news, is it unfair for me to think less of a white-collar employee whose line of work doesn't depend on spelling but who makes trivial spelling errors? I feel a bit guilty because maybe I shouldn't think less of this person because of this, but a native English speaker who makes certain kinds of spelling mistakes reduces my comfort level even in professional contexts in which spelling doesn't actually matter. Maybe it's just that feels like there's a lack of caring involved? (I of course know that some people are just worse at spelling than others, but when I get the impression that somebody can't be bothered, it annoys me.)