Conference thebay::joyoflex

307.0. "Joe Applegate, typo hunter" by TLE::SAVAGE (Neil, @Spit Brook) Fri Jan 23 1987 11:27

Associated Press Fri 23-JAN-1987 10:37                            Typo Hunter

                `Too' Err is Human: Joe Applegate, Typo Hunter
    
                              By FRED T. SHUSTER
                           Associated Press Writer
    
    LOS ANGELES (AP) - Typo hunter Joe Applegate gets his kicks tracking
    those sneaky grammatical glitches and misspellings that creep into
    books, newspapers and magazines. "It's not out of spite," said
    Applegate, who works in a law office. "I've never written to an editor
    pointing one out." 
    
    The 36-year-old former reporter has spent five years hunting down
    typos. His all-time favorite quarry turned up on page 110 of the April
    15, 1985, issue of New Yorker magazine. "About halfway down the third
    column on the right is a string of sentences with quotation marks at
    the end, but none at the beginning," Applegate said in a recent
    interview. "My masterwork." 
    
    In Applegate's hierarchy of blunders, some errors are worth more than
    others. Newspaper and magazine typos "can be funny but they don't
    really count," he said. "They're just everyday glitches. 
    
    "Just up from there is the paperback novel. Paperbacks are so riddled
    with mistakes, you can usually find one every 10 pages or so. Hardback
    typos I find more pleasurable because recent editions are approved by
    the author." 
    
    At the top of the heap are reference books, including dictionaries and
    anthologies, plus the New Yorker, a weekly famed for careful editing. 
    
    Applegate has bagged several favorite trophies. "Here's one I swapped
    with an editor at the Los Angeles Times," he said. "It's in the 9th New
    Collegiate Dictionary by Merriam-Webster, 1984 edition. On page 448,
    `familiarize' is spelled `famillarize' with two `l's' and no `i."'
    "That, to me, is a real find," Applegate said. "We've corrected it
    already," said Fredrick Mish, editorial director of Merriam-Webster
    Inc., in Springfield, Mass. "We were making changes on that page and
    all of a sudden there was a typo there. "Gremlins. I don't know what
    else to call it." 
    
    When landing a typo, Applegate said, he usually circles the page number
    and corrects the mistake with a pencil. If it's in a reference book, a
    note goes in his file. 
    
    One of the dangers in stalking the elusive typo is losing a fresh find
    with the flick of a page. "I lost one recently. I think it was a
    misspelled word in one of my favorite reference books, The New Columbia
    Encyclopedia, 1975 edition, a really fine book," Applegate said.
    Although the book has 3,052 pages, he's sure he'll run across the typo
    again. 
    
    Another problem occurs when the correct spelling of an uncommon word is
    camouflaged as an apparent error. "I once came across a word in a New
    Yorker article about China where the author was describing a kind of
    soil, `loess.' I thought he had misspelled `loose,"' Applegate said.
    "But the joke was on me." 
    
    Applegate admits having made typos himself while working as a reporter
    in San Diego. "I misspelled a doctor's name, Dr. Shipman, in the worst
    possible way," he said. "There were phone calls to the paper the next
    day." 

    I heard the exact same story on NPR's "Morning Edition" this morning.
    
    "So what?", you say.
    
    I mean EXACTLY.  As near as I can remember, the story was read by
    the reporter in the same way.  At least, I know the information
    was organized in precisely the same manner as the news story.  The
    quotes from Joe Applegate were exactly the same, only they came
    from a recorded telephone interview.
    
    I wonder: does NPR pick up stories from freelance writers?  Or did
    Fred plagarize?

    One of my favorite typos was found in a newspaper when some
    friends and I were staying overnight in Montreal. I suspect
    that it might have been done deliberately by the typesetter.
    It was in the TV listings, for a movie called RALLY ROUND
    THE FLAG, BOYS. The "l" in "flag" was left out.
    
    --- jerry

Re: .1

NPR gets its feature stories by scanning through the major newspapers.  
When they see an article they like, they clip it, take it to the 
editorial meeting, and if it gets approved, they call the nearest member 
station and have someone get in touch with the newspaper 
editor/reporter.  So it is very likely that the writer just re-did the 
article as a radio story.  The only way it would be considered plagiarism 
is if they swiped the article whole cloth and without permission.

						>>>==>PStJTT

My favorite:

"Bubbles", the autobiography of Beverly Sills, First Eition, 
first page, first paragraph, first sentence.  Beverly

	" made her first pubic display "

				at age three,no less..

I imagine each proofreader wondering who would stop this one.

BTW - Beverly sued the publisher for this typo, and won

    Miss Smith will be so lost at the Congregational Church this Sunday.
    
    A little bungle of love came to frighten the home of Mr. and Mrs.
    Johns Thursday.

    Edward Daigle reports to Army basic training next week.  Edward
    has been an Altered Boy at St. Dominic's for several years.
    
    To really spice up those melted cheese sandwiches, try adding a
    soup�an of Tobasco Sauce to each cheese slice.
    
    The many meals on the General's chest made an impressive sight as
    he strode down the runway.
    
    For many years, the dam west of town has been known as the Old Missouri
    Dam, the West Dam, the Missouri Dam, and the Old Dam.  The Town
    Council voted last night that from now on it will be officially
    known as the Old Missouri Bam.

When I first read the article in .0, I was looking for the sort of humorous 
typo found in .5; when I got to the end of the article without finding any 
humor at all, I felt gypped.  Then I found myself wondering what kind of 
person Joe Applegate must be, why he delights in collecting typos that 
aren't even funny.

Did anybody else notice the unbalanced quotation marks in at the end of the
6th paragraph?  I remember this typo from when I saw the article on VTX, so 
Neil's not to blame...

There's also a spurious double quote mark toward the middle of that same
paragraph.