Spellcheck please! Shining a light on typos

Typos happen.
They're everywhere — in the newspaper, online, on signs like this one, which I spotted the other day in Warren:


In newspapers, once an error is in print, it's there forever — and having written for a daily newspaper, I can say that I am embarrassed when I see errors like these recent ones: "peddling" instead of pedaling a bicycle; "boarder" instead of border collie; "mantle" instead of fireplace mantel; "bailed" instead of baled hay; "Dougway" instead of Dugway Bridge — even Narragansett Bay where what is being described is the Atlantic Ocean! You can't get much bigger than that in terms of getting it wrong. You can't fix a printed page, but you can fix online mistakes — and that's just, ahem, one more advantage of the new media age.

With a little effort, you can also fix errors on public signs — shine a little light on the errors of our ways, so to speak. In my Posts of May 22 and March 30, I lauded the transcontinental efforts of Somerville's Jeff Deck and his TEAL initiative to fix sign typos across America. At the end of his trip, he invited readers of his typo blog to go forth and multiply, fixing typos where we find them.

So I did!
Yesterday, I fixed my very first sign typo. Or, more accurately, I got it fixed. I called the church attached to the sign above, and pointed out the error. And they fixed it, although not without some defensiveness. Hey, I understand: I write for a newspaper! Typos happen: The important thing is to learn from them. And then fix them!


I've already submitted my fix to Deck's contest, hoping to win a TEAL T shirt, winner to be decided June 15. I'll keep you Posted.

Typo eradication: An impassible dream?

Readers of this blog may recall the Post of March 30, in which I lauded the pan-American typo-eradication expedition of Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson. Beginning from Deck's home in Somerville, MA, the duo criss-crossed the country, hunting down and fixing typos in signs wherever they found them. Sadly, despite my heartfelt invitation to visit typo-rich Rhode Island, the Typo Eradication Advancement League (TEAL) road trip never made it here. Last Sunday, Deck posted to the TEAL blog from his Somerville dining room, having skipped little Rhody completely.

He's tired, I'm sure, and perhaps just a little bit cranky after the arduous three-month journey. In his final Post, Deck implored readers to go forth and multiply his efforts by finding and fixing sign errors on our own.

He says he doesn't want to see any more photos of typos unless we ourselves have fixed them per his guidelines. On June 15, he will pick a winner of the Best Typo Fix and put it on his blog. The winner will receive a free TEAL T-shirt.

I'm here for you, Jeff. I'll carry the torch. I'll do what I can to fix Rhode Island's typos, though the road (photo below in Charlestown, RI) seems "impassible," when it should be "impassable."

The typo road goes on forever . . .

Got typos?

Yesterday's Globe had a story about two guys who are traveling across the country on a mission to eradicate errors of spelling and grammar on signs. They started in Boston a month ago and made a big loop through the fertile typo ground of the South, fixing mistakes for free wherever they found them. This month, they're going up the West Coast, and then they'll be back in New England in late May.

I applaud them and only hope they'll visit Rhode Island on the return trip since they bypassed us on the way out. Perhaps they felt the smallest state was too large a task to take on right out of the starting gate?

We have a lot of problems here, although one that used to give me a headache has been fixed. That was the sign on a bicycle shop on the East Bay Bike Path that said: "Your on the right path with us!" But there are many more, such as the sign outside the Italian market on Federal Hill that announces they have "Delicasies." Crescent Park signs are always being spelled "Cresent," and, well, the list goes on and on.

Readers, please send in here any nominees you've spotted, and I'll send a compilation of your requests to these guys, who call themselves TEAL, the Typo Eradication Advancement League. Their web site and blog are illuminating, allowing readers to follow them on their nonjudgmental journey—

"to stamp out as many typos as we can find, in public signage and other venues where innocent eyes may be befouled by vile stains on the delicate fabric of our language. We do not blame, nor chastise, the authors of these typos. It is natural for mistakes to occur; everybody will slip now and again. But slowly the once-unassailable foundations of spelling are crumbling, and the time has come for the crisis to be addressed."

I'd just like to suggest that once they've corrected all the country's signs, they might take a look at menu misspellings (Caesar salad and arugula seem to be perpetual challenges) and song lyrics. Can anyone listen to Paolo Nutini's "Last Request" without cringing? Hey, Paolo— You're cute, but why would she lie down next to someone so grammatically challenged as to say Lay instead of Lie?)