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Last month, two members of the Washington Nationals took to the field without noticing their team name was misspelled on their jerseys. Apparently, it took them until the third inning to realize they were experiencing their own version of a wardrobe malfunction. This typo didn’t result in anything more than a little embarrassment (and with a 10-19 record, there are bigger things to be embarrassed about), but some typos in history have had more significant outcomes. Here are a few examples.
1. They weren’t as strict back then, were they?
In 1631, a widely distributed Bible came to be known as the “Sinner’s Bible” when readers noticed a very important “not” had been omitted from Exodus 20:14, making the seventh commandment read “Thou shalt commit adultery.” This resulted in printer fines, recalled copies, and one crazy bingo night in 1632. Today, 11 copies are known to exist (and you have to think Hugh Hefner owns at least one).
2. I’ve been dord a few times.
On July 31, 1931, Austin M. Patterson, chemistry editor at Merriam-Webster, sent an internal communication to the printers that included the phrase “D or d, cont./density.” The intention was to add “density” to the existing list of words that the letter “D” can abbreviate. The printer misunderstood, and instead, printed a single, run-together word: dord, meaning density. The typo got past proofreaders and appeared on page 771 of the dictionary in 1934. It wasn’t until February 28, 1939, that an editor noticed “dord” lacked an etymology, and an urgent plate change soon followed.
3. My kind of super-saver rate.
For twelve hours on April 5, 2006, an Alitalia business class fare from Toronto to Cyprus was listed as $39 instead of the usual $3900. Someone at farecompare.com posted the news online, starting a buying stampede that lasted until the fare was corrected. Alitalia initially tried to cancel the already issued tickets, but eventually relented, and approximately 2000 people flew to Cyprus for under $200, including taxes.
4. Whatever happened to a simple toy surprise?
Earlier this year, an Oregon company had to place a rush order for new packaging for its Peace Cereal. It seems a typo on the box sent callers to a phone sex line instead of the cereal maker’s 800 number. So, instead of reaching the Golden Temple consumer relations department, callers were greeted by a recorded voice asking, “Do you love sex?” A spokesperson for the company attributed the incident to human error. And many Peace Cereal purchasers attributed their laughing fits to the incident for days to come.
5. The world’s most expensive typo?
This one comes from columnist A.J. Jacobs, writing in mental_floss magazine. “In 2005, a typo by a Japanese stock trader cost one investment bank $224 million. The broker meant to sell 1 share of J-Com at 610,000 yen, not 610,000 shares at 1 yen each.”
6. Can you hear me now?
One more from A.J.: “In 1991, a single mistyped character in a line of computer code left 12 million people without telephone service. DSC Communications and Bell Systems confirmed that massive outages on the East Coast and West Coast could be traced back to the one, tiny error.”
7. …and the rest is history.
In 1997, Larry Page was in his office at the Gates Computer Science Building at Stanford University with several graduate students, including Sean Anderson. They were having a brainstorming session to think of a name for a website where immense amounts of data would be indexed. Sean suggested “googolplex,” and Larry shortened it to “googol.” Sean immediately ran a domain name search, but not being the best speller, he typed in “google,” which was available. Larry liked the name, and within hours he took the step of registering google.com for himself and Sergey Brin.
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Comments (29)
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Was “High Hefner” a deliberate typo??
posted by AmyD on 5-11-2009 at 10:44 am
Haha! Right after the page refreshed with my comment, it was changed to Hugh!
posted by AmyD on 5-11-2009 at 10:45 am
Isn’t Oprah’s name a typo? It was supposed to be Orpah but Oprah was written on her birth certificate instead, and the rest is history. Or perhaps that’s just an urban legend?
posted by Brooke on 5-11-2009 at 11:28 am
Ha! Definitley not deliberate, but in an article about typos, there are bound to be one or two, as tribute to the irony gods. (and I kinda like High Hefner)
posted by Jellio on 5-11-2009 at 11:40 am
Marshall McLuhan’s “The Medium is the Massage” is actually a typographical error and should read, “The Medium is the Message”. He apparently saw the humor in the error and kept the title unaltered.
posted by Mike on 5-11-2009 at 11:46 am
I remember reading an article a couple years back about a whole community devoted to air fare typos. Seems like you could get some good deals. Though, you’d be going wherever the cheap flight. Good if you like adventure and surprises.
posted by nihil on 5-11-2009 at 12:07 pm
Interestingly enough, in Hugh Hefner’s first marriage, his wife cheated on him first. Then his wife allowed him to sleep with other women out of guilt, according to the E True Hollywood story I saw about him (and ETHS doesn’t lie, does it?). Also from the same source, apparently he was quite faithful to his second wife. However they are no longer married, and he now sleeps with three women (twins, and a third woman), none of which are the same as the three women he lived with during “The Girls Next Door.”
posted by Joel on 5-11-2009 at 12:33 pm
joel,
i could be mistaken, but isn’t hefner still married? they are seperated, but were never legally divorced. the wife and their two sons lived next door until recently (the house was put on the market a couple months ago).
posted by tiffany on 5-11-2009 at 1:18 pm
You forgot about the US Government. In (I believe) the 20’s they enacted a tariff on tropical fruits. a misplaced comma before the word “bananas” were not subject to the tariff and the US lost millions in tariff revenue until the correction was made.
posted by Jay on 5-11-2009 at 2:12 pm
In a similar story to #4. in washington state, there was a pamphlet produced by the government that was about voting and all for the last election and the website that you could find more information about voting was a sex site.
posted by AUsten on 5-11-2009 at 2:37 pm
The New Zealand rugby team, The All Blacks, were named after a typo in the Daily Mail newspaper in 1905, which intended to describe the NZ team’s playing style as if they were “All Backs” (backs being the faster players with explosive plays) but this was misprinted as All Blacks. And the name stuck. Probably also helped that the uniform was all black as well.
posted by dangermouse on 5-11-2009 at 5:25 pm
Brooke, the Oprah/Orpah story is true. I actually remember watching the episode where she told the story herself. I always thought it was a kind of interesting story…
posted by Shandi on 5-11-2009 at 9:28 pm
Believe another US gov error dealing with tariffs was a misplaced comma which allowed fruit,trees to be taxed at a lower rate instead of just fruitrees. Also, wasn’t an omitted comma, in a software program, responsible for an early NASA rocket launch?
posted by MagicBoy on 5-12-2009 at 12:04 am
failure….typo
posted by magicboy on 5-12-2009 at 12:07 am
While at a previous ad agency, I worked on a campaign for holiday breaks for the very elderly. The headline was supposed to read: “Go on, spoil yourself”. In fact, it read: “Go on, soil yourself”.
I also remember narrowly avoiding going to print describing the UK’s financial hub as the London Sock Exchange. A different prospect entirely…
posted by John Bottom on 5-12-2009 at 6:57 am
popurls.com // popular today…
story has entered the popular today section on popurls.com…
posted by popurls.com // popular today on 5-12-2009 at 8:00 am
what about the linotype?
posted by flachrattenmann on 5-12-2009 at 8:46 am
I think the NASA “typo” error you’re talking about was actually an error where the scientists forgot to convert from kilometres to miles when launching a shuttle of some sort. I just remember reading about that in high school, and having to know the importance of remembering units!
posted by Reese on 5-12-2009 at 8:48 am
The Australian Idol winner a few years back now was Casey Donnovan, who’s website was caseydonnovan.com.au. However, when newspapers reported on Casey’s win the following morning, they left the “.au” off the end, and fans were treated to the well-known gay porn star Casey Donnovan’s website.
posted by Tony on 5-12-2009 at 9:07 am
… and don’t forget the upstate NY district that printed Presidential ballots with the candidate “Barack Osama” …
posted by Naomi on 5-12-2009 at 9:20 am
In 1980, my sister got a pretty-good used car by being the first one in the dealer’s door with the flyer that advertised the car at $1200 instead of $4200. That, with a loud voice and lots of guts. Drove that car for years.
posted by ArtW on 5-12-2009 at 9:22 am
On an IT firms web site the ALT Text (the text that appears if an image cannot be displayed on a web page – or the text that appears when you hover over an image on a web page) – the text on Investor Relations reads – “Incestor Relations”.
Still Does.
posted by Daru Bottle on 5-12-2009 at 9:35 am
The NASA error with miles/kilometers caused the crash of the Mars Climate orbiter in September 1999. One navigation team was using miles, another kilometers, and they did not realize this until the craft crashed onto Mars.
posted by Bob D. on 5-12-2009 at 10:28 am
NASA also had a very expensive hyphen in the 70s, they had to blow up something that went off-course.
About 10 years ago, in Allentown, PA, 15th Street was a mess for over a year becasue of a missing decimal point in some piece of paperwork.
And in 1986, when the Rubik’s Magic “Link the Rings” puzzle was the hot Christmas toy, toy maker Ideal included in the original packaging a “tip line” for help in solving the puzzle. Strangely enough, not only did some people feel the need for help with this notoriously easy puzzle, they went as far as to call the tip line and got a number for a phone sex service.
posted by Wayne on 5-12-2009 at 3:37 pm
John Bottom you cracked me UP! I almost sprayed pop at the screen with your typos! Those are CLASSIC! :)
(PS, you have an interesting name too….)
~Bethy
posted by Bethy on 5-12-2009 at 4:09 pm
My sister, while working at an accounting firm, received a resume with the stated objective including “utilizing my skills as a certified pubic accountant.” This resume had been professionally written and sent to many companies. She called to notify and the sender was mortified, and then very angry with the company that had ‘poof-read’ (I just made this up) it for him.
posted by Brady on 5-12-2009 at 7:28 pm
A few years ago, a fantastic typo at one of the city’s most expensive department stores got me a PS2, Prince of Persia (Sands of Time) and a memory card for $260 AUD, which was cheaper than just the PS2 alone.
posted by Luis on 5-13-2009 at 8:56 am
Saw an ad in our local paper for a weekend sale at a national men’s department store that left an “r” out of their ad:
Men’s Summer Shits
-solids, stripes and prints
-dress and casual
-all sizes available (tallman extra)
THESE WON’T LAST LONG!
posted by Evets on 5-14-2009 at 1:27 am
We had asked a vendor to ship a product on a certain day – his response – “considerate done”. I laugh every time I think about it.
posted by tim on 5-15-2009 at 10:24 am