I heart typos

Often I come across as a grammar nazi because of my compulsion to comment on typos or commonly misused words or phrases. The truth is, I’m not trying to rid the world of typos or make people feel stupid. The truth is, I’m highly amused.

My favorite occupation is to read comments or Twitter postings where typos abound as people are in a rush to make their points. Many people, I’ve noticed, spell by ear (I notice this because that’s usually how I attempt to spell)which can be dangerous as homonyms can lead you down a treacherous path of meaning.

For example, a band I follow on Facebook posted that he was not “aloud” in a restaurant because of his heeled boots. I wanted to write back that at least they let him in, even if they didn’t let him speak. I resisted because it was weak.

What I couldn’t resist was a HuffPo commenter who said that the Republicans were crying “fowl” at every move Democrats made. The mental picture of Dick Cheney pointing at Democrats shouting “DUCK! CHICKEN! TURKEY!” was too good not ot share. Though, given his history with guns, land fowl, and people’s faces, that might’ve been an encoded warning.

My favorite from yesterday wasn’t a comment, but from my own writing. I was reading through my WIP to get back into the mental place to continue the story when I hung on the line I’d stopped on. Obviously, I was tired or distracted, because the line read, “XX dropped an arm on YY.”

What I meant was that XX draped his arm around YY, but the way it was phrased, I pictured XX with a disembodied arm, holding it above his head to drop it on YY. It didn’t fit the mood I was trying to set in that particular story. I saved the phrase for my next zombie thriller.