Who IS this guy?!

'Niceguy' Eddie

Political Talk Show Host and Internet Radio Personality. My show, In My Humble Opinion, aired on RainbowRadio from 2015-2017, and has returned for 2021! Feel free to contact me at niceguy9418@usa.com. You can also friend me on Facebook.

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Monday, August 23, 2010

One. Letter. Off...

I probably don't need to point out by now that I'm not a very good proofreader. 

Not that I'm claiming to be any kind of fantastic WRITER, but PROOFREADING my own work is something I absolutely SUCK AT. Full credit to my darling editor wife for proofreading all my papers in grad school!  That alone probably got me half a point higher on my GPA.  But I can't help it.  Even spell-check isn't fool-proof (I'm an extraordinary fool, after all!) and when I read something within 12 hours or so of having written it, regardless of what's actually on the page, I simply SEE what I meant to say.  Once the idea's no longer in my personal RAM, I can usually spot the error, but as I spend a lot of time THINKING about what I write, consequently I'm pretty helpless at proofreading it in a timely manner.  (Surprisingly, I'm actually pretty good at proofreading other people's work.)

For example, if I'd known that this piece was going to be picked up and quoted by several other sites, I probably would have at least run a spell-check before posting it here.  As it was, the critical section got cut-and-pasted, warts and all, onto several other sites.  How embarrassing.  It was like, \Look at this guy's great ideas!  And from someone who speaks English as second language no less!" 

(No, English is NOT my second language!)

Earlier today, on two separate Glenn Beck threads, I misspelled (or almost mispelled, as it were) "MORMON."  In one, I spelled it "Morom," which... is gibberish; but I think people still got the point.  LUCKILY I caught the other one, because...

Well... I said (in response to his criticism of President Obama's characterization of America as a nation of Christians, Muslim, Jews, Hindu's and Non-Believers) that "Well, we sure as hell aren't a nation of MORMONS ."

What I ALMOST posted was that "Well, we sure as hell aren't a nation of MORONS."

Which...

1) In context, doesn't make any damned sense!

and

2) May or may not be true, actually, depending on your point of view.

Luckily I caught that one.  But it got me thinking about what may have been my most infamous typo... what may have been they worst spelling error of all-time, in fact...

I was sending a thank-you note to my aunt, who had given me a SHIRT for Christmas.  Only... I left out the "R"...:


Dear Auntie Linda,

Thank you for the SHIT you gave me for Christmas!

Love,
Eddie


Yep. One lousy letter sure can be pretty darned importantt, can't it?

5 comments:

  1. Eddie, in my short time coming to your blog, the impression I've gotten from your writing is that your brain is going too fast for your fingers and the typos are just a result of that. I usually ignore them. Now, if I disagreed with you, then I'd certainly pass judgment.

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  2. Sorry I had missed that piece of yours the first time around - and yeah, I think that the "Beagle Politics" thing is a good way to describe it too.

    My eyes usually catch both my typos and others' too, except when I add an extra negative to a sentence, which actually then gives the entirely opposite meaning to my thought!

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  3. @Sammy - Thanks, I wouldn't have it any other way!

    @Dolly - You must be stealing some of my negatives then, becasue I usually LEAVE OUT the negative, which... gives the entirely opposite meaning to my thought!

    Thanks for your comments.

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  4. I could not. Stop. Laughing.
    ...At your "thank you" letter to your Aunt.
    That's too funny.

    But I think everyone's had a situation like that. Where what you meant was too close to... something else.

    For instance, I almost accidentally told a black woman customer. "Uht oh, here comes a trouble-maker."

    ...But I was jokingly referring to her decked-out Yankees gear. (I live in Massachusetts.)

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  5. Dradeeus,

    Glad you appreciated the thank-you-note. As for your situation with the Yankees fan, yeah...

    *awkward*

    Wow. Hopefully you were able to recover in time? In MA, I'm sure "Yankees Fan" would be accepted as an explanation, but...wow. How did she take it?

    My son (who's autistic) once made a REALLY BIG DEAL out of the fact that his baby-sitter was "Brown." She was Black, although he said "brown." Several times. In a very loud, clear, audible voice. She knew the drill, with kids, autism, etc... so she was cool about it, but still...

    Oh yeah... and my parents had a really racist dog once. Seriously. He was a little, white bicchon-friese (sp?) and he HATED black people. Would bark at them viscously. Which was... realy embarassing. The really wierd thing was thay he would bark at JEWS as well! How the hell...? I mean it's one thing when someone LOOKS different, even to a dog, you know... like, pack mentality and all that... but how did he...? I mean... WTF?

    He was a actually really good dog, otherwise. XD

    Thanks for your comment.

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