Penguin Group Australia will be reprinting 7000 cookbooks due to a typo that is embarrassing for some and an outrage to others that it was ever allowed to be put on bookshelves in the first place. The recipe in The Pasta Bible called for “salt and freshly ground black people”, when it was supposed to, of course, call for “black pepper”. The book is being reprinted, but is not being recalled.
The lesson here: Spell-check is a dangerous tool and should only be handled by licensed professionals, and under adult supervision. Always.
But was this the worst typo in history? Probably not.
In 2009, an engraver made a misprint on the 50-peso coin in Chile. The engraver, Pedro Urzua Lizana, had mistakenly left out the bottom portion of the letter L on the 50-peso coin, turning “CHILE” into “CHIIE”. He lost his job for that, but not before 1.5 million of the coins were released for public circulation.
The Irish Times recently recounted a typo in a medical publication that almost made it to publication, referring to “John Smith, the rapist”, rather than John Smith, Therapist”.
In January 2009, The Guardian, had to explain to readers that the author Garrison Keillor, nor his book about LakeWoebegone, had nothing to do with rap, and was not really called, “A Prairie Ho Companion”
In 1962, a typo by a NASA programmer resulted in the Mariner 1 being sent into the ocean rather than its intended destination, Venus. The cause was a missed hyphen.
A typo in a Bible, published in London in 1631 caused not a small stir, with the omission of the word “not” in the Seventh Commandment: “Thou Shalt commit adultery.” The publisher was fined, and the book was henceforth known as “The Wicked Bible”.
The most costly typo in Canadian history would have to be a misplaced comma in a 14-page contract that cost Rogers Communications $2.13-million in 2006.
A typo in Readers’ Digest several years ago, on the women’s rights moment created the opposite result of what was intended when the letter “T” was typed instead of the letter “R”, resulting in the title: “Movers and Shakers in Women’s Tights”.
For more interesting insights into typos and punctation, you may want to check out Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss. I have not read it myself, simply because when it comes to typos, I’m the last person to be throwing stoners.
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{ 14 comments }
I loved this post. I am a closet proof-reader. I should read with a red pen in y hand…heh.
Blog love!
I used to read with a pen in my hand. I kept waking up with black stains on my face and pillow… and once I woke up with this stabbing pain in my eye….
Hehe, stoners.
Actually, I was wondering just when the “women’s rights moment” occurred.
Oh. How !#$@!’in ironic is that?!!? Thanks Mr. Eagle Eye Storrs. Wondering if I should leave that one there…
Definitely leave it
If I had to leave my typo in my comment, you have to leave that there, David. Just sayin’…
Actually, the typo in your piece David is simply an example of what has been described by an Australian editor, John Bangsund, as ‘Muphry’s law’ (a play on Murphy’s law). This law states first if you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written – but there is more to it than that. It has an entry in Wikipedia and is an amusing read.
I have been secretly collecting unfortunate typos, especially Freudian slips, for a while, so enjoyed your piece above, however, spotting a case of Muphry gave me a chuckle. Happens all the time. A costly typo where I once worked – we had just printed a new science book catalogue at great expense, and the phone order number on the back was wrong. It wasn’t discovered until after the mail out (pre-internet ordering days).
Muphry’s law. I like that a lot. Thanks Helen!
I’m a proof reader by profession. I notice typos all the time. It’s quite annoying really!
By the way, Eats, Shoots & Leaves is a wonderful book.
Thanks for stopping by Sophie!
How long did it take you to find these fine, fine examples? They are all somewhat funny in a “Gee, I”m glad that wasn’t me who did that” kind of way. Thanks for the lesson and laughs.
Hi Alexandra, it took me longer than I’d care to admit. I was looking for a list for my own amusement and couldn’t find one, so decided to package one together myself.
I remember one correction many years ago in parachuting instructions. The correction was something like this: ”On page 3 replace “state zip code” with “pull rip cord.”
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