May 18, 2008

Reuters headline today:

Three days’ mourning to honohonorur 32,500 quake dead

I half hope someone notices and fixes it, but I other-half-hope that it stays this way.

I can see exactly how it happened: The headline originally used the British spelling, honour, and an editor double-clicked in the middle of the word and typed the American spelling, honor, to replace it. Except they didn’t quite double-click, so they inadvertently placed the text insertion point in the middle of honour and typed honor. I’ve done this sort of thing countless times.

Thing is, it was their very last edit—so they clicked, typed, and hit “Publish.” Whoops.

Me, I’d have clicked to the right of the u and hit Backspace.

May 18, 2008 / 11:24 am