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The Yahoo discussion boards are filled with misspelled and mangled words
and expressions. I just saw one that says those people who don't support
President Bush are "traders". Another says that "Libs are really testing
my patients". It doesn't say what they are testing for.
Ron
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+rhearn=cucbc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+rhearn=cucbc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf
Of Jones, Donna
Sent: Friday, May 12, 2006 9:21 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: More Friday Fun: Archie Bunker-style mangled expressions
(For those of you not familiar with the 1970s TV show All in the Family,
Archie Bunker was known for mangling common expressions.)
On the radio yesterday, I heard someone talk about "siding on the error
of caution." I'm still laughing about that. Nothing like reversing words
as well as getting one of them wrong-and saying it on the radio to boot!
Here are some other manglings of that phrase:
- "side IN the error of caution" got one hit on Google
- "side on the err of caution" got three hits
- "side on the air of caution" got three more
- "air on the side of caution" had several hundred hits
- "error on the side of caution" got more than 22,000 hits (That one
isn't as surprising because the noun "error" is much more commonly used
than the verb "err.")
I also get a kick out of people using "could of" instead of "could've."
I even heard a former tech writing coworker laugh at someone once
because she used "could have" in an e-mail instead of "could of." I
didn't have the heart to tell him who was right. :-)
I found a site that lists several phrases that are typically distorted
because people are used to hearing them rather than seeing them in
print. There are some amusing ones.
Anyone have any other good ones that aren't mentioned on the site?
Happy Friday!
Donna
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