The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World, One Correction at a Time

#767
Title: The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World, One Correction at a Time
Author: Jeff Deck & Benjamin D. Herson
Publisher: Harmony
Year: 2010
269 pages

An amusing cross-country sojourn to correct typos, including prosecution for unwittingly desecrating an historical sign. The tone wears on one in places, but I can't fault their intentions, and do admire their discussions of descriptive versus prescriptive linguistics.

The first major typo I remember encountering in my childhood was at a mall. The signboard, which should have read "The Hecht Company Will Be Close to You" (Just like me/Hecht's want to be/Close to you) instead proclaimed "The Hecht Company Will Be Closed to You". I recall worriedly asking one of my parents to whom we should report this error. Years later, when I had mastered "squirrel" and "scissors" and was aware of Captain Kirk's bold split infinitive, I lived hard by a FURNITURN store in the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, and later, on my daily commute to Boston, I would pass the new Home Depot in South Attleboro that was adorned with giant letters reading MASSACHUSETT'S. I called corporate about that one, as, presumably, did many, and the offending apostrophe was removed. This is to say that I understand.