Thursday, January 31, 2013

Noël

The cover of the white-writing-on-black-background middle book says Bipolar Disorder, but the spine - the first thing potential readers see - says something else. Click the image to enlarge it.

Have you received a memo from your editor yet?

The above sentence would make sense if the second word weren't there. From "Arrow assault puts B.C. senior in hospital" on CBC News online on January 28, 2013. Unrelated, I wonder if Jon Stuart likes to watch Jon Stewart. Click the image to enlarge it.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

It's a date!

It's a book and, if I'm to judge a book by its cover, it looks to be about the Mayan calendar and the possible end of the world on 12.21.12 - a date also known as December 21, 2012. But

while the top of the back of the book again has 12.21.12 as the date, the text of the first paragraph has the date as December 12, 2012, and

a bit farther down the back, it's again December 12, 2012. On the book's Indigo webpage, the description includes, "foretold to occur on December 21, 2012". The plot thickens! Click an image to enlarge it.

But it feels like it just happened

My young son has a habit of saying that something happened yesterday when it actually happened much longer ago. But I expect a bit more from a news site such as CBC. The incident happened either last year or in 2011. Which one is the truth? From "B.C. Transit Police forgot explosive on Air Canada plane" on CBC News online on January 21, 2013. Click the image to enlarge it.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Wiig's first name is a cyclops...

...because it's only got one I. Just like the last post, this is a Yahoo! Movies Golden Globes Blog article. However, where the article in the last post gets pretty much everything wrong, the writer of this article ("Kristin Wiig: Would she host the Golden Globes?" on Yahoo! Canada OMG! on January 14, 2013) simply gets the subject's name wrong. But it's in the headline, and then a few more times in the article itself. The subject is actress Kristen Wiig - there are two I's in her last name, but only one in her first name. In the article's third sentence,

her name is written correctly. But,

it is back to incorrect in both the fifth and sixth sentence. The next time,

it's correct, but

the final appearance is incorrect. Including the headline, Kristen Wiig's first name is written six times, and only twice it's written correctly. 2/6. That's terrible. Click an image to enlarge it.

Monday, January 14, 2013

This is a dog's breakfast

Did you watch the Golden Globes last night? If so, can you spot the error in the above image? Except for a short intro sentence not included in the screen capture, the image contains the entire article ("Tommy Lee Jones: Golden Globes curmudgeon" on Yahoo! Canada OMG! on January 13, 2013), and the entire article is garbage. What does "the male nominees in the best supporting film category" mean? I know the difference between an actor and a supporting actor in a film, but what's the difference between a film and a supporting film? Beyond that, Kristen Wiig and Will Ferrell weren't even presenting the award for any male nominees; they were presenting for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical. Here are some comments made by other readers of the article:
  • "They weren't presenting for Best Supporting Actor they were presenting another award. Tommy Lee Jones had already lost at that time."
  • "Obviously whoever wrote this didn't watch the golden globes."
  • "They weren't describing the men category they were describing the women category, did you even watch the Golden Globes? The clip show them making fun of Meryl Streep's name!!!"
Click the image to enlarge it.

Shoeshoeing? So... regular walking?

I'm quite familiar with snowshoeing, but before reading the above photo caption (from "North Shore Rescue crew out on Hollyburn Mountain to retrieve fallen snowshoer" on The Province online on January 5, 2013) I'd never heard of shoeshoeing. Now,

after an update, the photo caption includes a misspelling of Hollyburn Mountain and repeated words. The repeated words are near the end and are repeated from much earlier in the caption. Click an image to enlarge it.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Yahooooooo! December 2012

The final month of 2012 saw a handful of errors on the Yahoo! Canada homepage. First, on December 10, there was either a missing word that should have been between and and dishes, or and should have been cut out. Then,

on December 13 there was this misspelling of thieves. Yet another nonword on the homepage of a major news website. Yahoo! is classy like that. Then,

on December 20 there was something off with this teaser. I think one possible fix is to insert the word says between Dagliesh and his, if I understand what the Yahoo! writer was trying to say. Then,

on December 23 there were a three goofs: an aimes that should have been aimed and twice a Ukranian that should have been Ukrainian. Then,

on December 27 there was an apostrophe on Starbucks for no good reason. Then,

on December 29 there was this correct Canadian spelling of favourite as Yahoo! showcased some stories from throughout the year, but

at the same time there was this American spelling of favourite. Finally,

on December 30 another nonword was featured. Couldn't the writer see that they had erred? I see what I did there. Click an image to enlarge it.

Friday, January 4, 2013

CBC British Columbia homepagerrors - December 2012

Happy New Year! There were a few errors I detected on the CBC British Columbia homepage during the final month of 2012. And would you look at that - here they are! First, on December 13 there was both a dollar sign ($) and the word dollars. That's redundant! Then,

on December 18 there was a nonword in the form of possiblity. How the fun do nonwords continue to show up on the homepages of major news websites? It's now 2013! Resolve to get with the times and spell check your work! To make matters worse,

possiblity is still present in the headline of the article ("Metro Vancouver police force a possiblity, official admits" on CBC News online on December 17, 2012). Then,

on December 22 there was another misspelling resulting in another nonword. Can you spot it? Then,

also on December 22, I personally believe that's should have been that. Then,

on December 31, 2012 ended with a bang with the word connecting. It should have been connection. Click an image to enlarge it.