Proofreading

The video to follow is hugely funny to me, because I've spent a lot of years editing the pre-publication newspaper articles of various colleague's, "fixing" grammar and punctuation on college papers for friends, and red-inking official work papers for my sweet spouse.

Truth be told, I'm a bit out of practice. But I read a lot, and I still catch things in books, in newspapers, on billboards. That doesn't mean I write perfectly. Just that I like to pick apart the work of others.

I don't do it to be mean or critical. It's simply a challenge to me. In some ways, it's a game. I enjoy it as much as I like a Sudoku puzzle, a computer game of Mahjong or the newspaper's edition of a crossword puzzle. It's just fun.

And there are plenty of things to laugh about when you really catch a doozy while proofreading. Lest you think that I am exempt from making horrible errors, I'll share this little tidbit. I have written about numerous "pubic" meetings in newspaper articles, before fellow reporters or a good editor got me back on track so that my story was focused on a "public" meeting.

And outside of reporting, there are two ladies in my life who I communicate with regularly, and whose names constantly get turned into typos. (My typos are highly complimentary, though, in these cases.) My friend Greta often gets addressed first as Great, and our fine church secretary, Betsy, comes out originally as Besty. I personally think these are not typos so much as my brain just characterizing their names, because Greta is Great, and Betsy is the Best-y.

I'm getting excited now to share this. (Everyone has a quirky passion, right?) On to the clip.

But first, the warning. Make sure your kids aren't around when you watch it. There are no curse words, but there are words that, trust me, you aren't going to want to explain. And there are some double entendres going on as well.


Okay, okay. Even if most of you hate it, I know my dad will like it. He is a great reader, is big on working crossword puzzles, and enjoys a good laugh!