Many a Slip . . .

By Cheri Zagurski, The ByLine Committee

"Inter caesa et porrecta" - Latin translation of an ancient Greek proverb

(There's many a slip twixt cup and lip.)

Those ancient Greeks - they knew some things. Like wine. They knew a lot about wine.

Though there is much less drinking (in our collective cups) than there used to be in DTN's neck of the journalistic woods, this proverb still contains a lesson for us all. Shall we turn to the valuable writer's tool of paraphrase?

There's many a slip twixt lip and backlit computer screen.

Not very lyrical.

How about: There's many a slip twixt lip and typing fingertip?

Better.

When you handle as much copy as the DTN editing staff does, you're bound to run across some gems that demonstrate that slip twixt lip (or cerebral cortex) and the typing fingertip. Here are a few examples we've collected over the years.

Being a market news service, one of our consistent topics is grain markets. And a slip that turns up time and time again is "market sediment." I wonder what market sediment would look like? Is market flotsam and jetsam gray and pebble-like? Or is it a more papery-kind of detritus? What is the market sentiment about market sediment?

Also in the market analysis category of slips, is the Small Widow of Opportunity. Ah, yes. The Tiny Widow. Everybody loves her. Everybody wants to be successful with the Small Widow of Market Opportunity. And when you miss the Small Widow of Opportunity, it's often heartbreaking.

Sometimes the slips occur in email communications. It's so easy to get lazy in emails. I myself slip into an e.e.cummings type existence in email, eschewing the use of capital letters. It's so exhausting to move that second finger to achieve the capital, don't you think?

Several people who email me regularly respond affirmatively to a request or order with "We'll do." Hmm.... you and who else will do? The mouse in your pocket? Or maybe the cockroach? (Twenty bonus points for those who can identify the e.e.cummings cockroach reference.)

Also in emails, we get tripped up by words we know how to SAY but apparently don't know how to SPELL. "Geese, what a pessimist," was included in an email I received recently. Geese? As opposed to ducks? I might spell it Geez.

Words that are just one little letter away from each other offer problems. A cutline that accompanied an Associated Press photo of an astronaut and space vehicle once calmly proclaimed: ". . .As the astronaut works outside the space sh_t. . ." The newsroom would not have been calm had we let this one slip by. Then there is the DTN staffer who in a previous life worked as a civic employee for a Nebraska town. She was preparing a sign to be posted on property that might be re-zoned and admits, "I had it nearly completed and looked at it and it said we were having a pubic hearing."

I've been to a lot of county board meetings in my day, but I've never been to a hearing of THAT type.

Of course, some slips are simply evidence of cultural or literary ignorance. A recent piece contained this sentence: "Times are NOT a'changin as Bob Dillon sang. They have changed!" The slips here are twofold - the misplaced apostrophe in a-changin', and the spelling of the troubadour's name, Dylan. Like the famous Irish author or famous Minnesotan folk singer. Not Dillon, like the tire company in Omaha, Neb.

Or how about this one: "Nevada is mixed on the use of nuclear power but the residents are attimate about not using the Yucca Mountain as a dump site for nuclear waste." Attimate, perhaps a cross between adamant and animated? If I were adamant about something, I might be animated on the subject. Why use two words when one hybrid will do?

Even our technology can trip us up in this manner. When first learning to use spellcheck, I neglected to notice that spellcheck did not like the spelling of our livestock analyst's name - John Harrington. I published the file, and imagine my (and John's) surprise when DTN proudly displayed: Midday Livestock Comments by John Herringbone.

John Herringbone. I heard he's a snappy dresser.

If you have any hilarious examples to share, email me at cheri.zagurski@dtn.com.

Cheri Zagurski is managing editor at DTN, Omaha, Neb. She can be reached at (402) 399-6402 or cheri.zagurski@dtn.com