MONDAY MUST HAVE BEEN the day for word bloopers.
While reading a story about Tom Petters, KSTP TV 10 p.m. news anchor Bill Lunn shared that defense attorneys are seeking a lighter sentence for the Minnesotan convicted in a major Ponzi scheme. Petters, he reported, has a tumor growing on his pituitary gland.
Lunn, however, incorrectly pronounced pituitary as “pit-you-airy.” He didn’t even flinch, so I’m certain he was unaware of his mistake.
I shouldn’t have laughed, because later I discovered a word blooper of my own.
Because I’m in the word business, people—in this case two sisters-in-law—find it particularly funny when I mess up on anything English-related. I suppose for them, it’s rather like the teacher scrawling a big red “F” across the top of a test paper.
Now, test your English teacher skills and see if you can find the error in the following excerpt from an e-mail I sent to family on Monday:
He has an impressive roster of classes lined up for his junior year that includes chemistry, psychics, pre-calc, an advanced English class, etc. I hope he can handle them all, but he assures me that he can. I certainly could not have, except for the English.
Well, well, well. See the mistake?
Annette did and writes: “Since Caleb is taking psychics, will he be able to do some mind reading or palm interpretations at our holiday get together? 🙂 Just joking, it is pretty rare to catch you making a spelling error. (Like once in 10 years) I presume with his science aptitude he is taking physics.”
And then this e-mail comes from another sister-in-law, Jamie: “I have to admit that I’m quite curious if Caleb will be studying to be a “fortune-teller for women” or if you meant to type physics instead of psychics (ha!).”
Yup, that darn spell check doesn’t always work.
© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
Was that physics class or civics class.
Psychics, physics, civics… I’ll never hear the end of comments on this blooper, will I?
At least you know the relatives are reading your e-mail…did it get sent to me? I missed being the first to find the blooper!
Excellent point, Amber. Maybe I misspelled physics on purpose, just to see if anyone was reading my e-mails. Yeah, why didn’t I think of that to explain away my word blooper?
Better check today’s e-mail to family to find your next blooper. Sometimes the snowball just gathers more snow as it rolls downhill.
I think that latest mistake, BY instead of MY, qualifies as a typo. But great catch, Annette. Have you considered a second job as a proofreader? You aren’t the only family member reading my e-mails very, very carefully. Now, I must type very, very carefully!
I also noticed the blooper when I read your message but wasn’t prepared to make a witty reply at the time. I later considered that Faribault has one of those schools with a liberal curriculum!
I don’t know if Faribault has a liberal curriculum or not. But I do know that our school district is struggling with low student scores on mandatory tests.
As for my blooper in the last family e-mail, that was a typo. But, be assured that I will proofread all e-mails once, if not twice.