Some of you will recognize the title quote, "Do you pop out at parties?", from the classic TV show I Love Lucy. But to many others, it sounds like a terrible wardrobe malfunction. And that's why it was a terrible advertising idea from a major women's clothing...
editing
Tuxedoed Writing
Will Rogers, Jr. once advised a fellow actor, “Don't ever take a dramatic lesson. They will try to put your voice in a dinner jacket, and people like their hominy and grits in everyday clothes." The actor – Dale Robertson – followed Rogers’s advice and became a highly...
How Many Bananas?
The saddest misprint is a huge misprint. I found this mistake on a huge banner at a picnic event, and the sentence above was, unfortunately, one of the selling points of the product. The "e" has been left off from the word "one". It should read "More potassium...
Falling In Love Can Be Dangerous
As writers, we love what we do. Let’s face it – if we weren’t passionate about it, would we pour our hearts and souls onto page after page, into book after book, not knowing if anyone else will share our passion? Of course not. We also tend to fall in love with our...
Proofreading 101: The “Mined” Chicken Incident
Here's a fun little typo from a restaurant menu - it insinuates that the chicken was actually mined, the way diamonds or gold would be. Funny, I always thought that chickens were farmed, not mined! 😉 That proofreading error - "mined" instead of "minced" - flashed...
Be Careful How You Flash Those Descriptives…
I was reading a take-out restaurant menu when I came across this description - look at the orange word on the first line: "Homely" vegetarian food? In America, that would insinuate "plain, unattractive" food. I'm sure that's not what they were inferring! But in...