Flying the Friendly Skyies

Did you see the headline on Page 9A of the Northwest Herald this morning for the Associated Press article about the man who flew from Oregon to Idaho in a lawn chair hanging from helium-filled balloons?

I can guess how the headline "Man flyies lawn chair to Idaho" might have been written. Perhaps the editor wrote "Man flys..." and then wondered about the spelling. Is it "flys" or is it "flies"? Did he add "...ies" and then get too busy to see that he had written "flyies"?

What's the old saying? "If you don't have time to do it right the first time, you definitely don't have time to do it over."

When I was working at the Sears headquarters a few years ago (pre-Kmart days), during a cutback of about 400 employees at the headquarters the company also decided to cut the size of cubicles that employees would have. To educate employees (i.e., try to make an employee feel that he wasn't alone when his own cubicle was cut down in size), cubicles of four new (smaller) sizes were on display in the atrium. I called it showing "each mouse what size mouse hole he was going to get."

As I stood looking at the display and wondering just where all the paper was going to fit on the smaller desktops, I burst out laughing. There were signs on three of the four cubicles with the word "Assoicate."

To all within hearing I said, a little more loudly than was necessary, "This is what happens when you give too much work to too few people, and then give them too little time to get it done."

Everyone makes typing mistakes. I've made that same typo. But a simple glance at it alerts me to the mistake and I fix it. In this case, someone had typed the wording for the sign and missed the typo. Somebody printed it and missed it. Somebody put the signs up on three cubicles and missed it.

And, when I called the Office of the Building to suggest that they reprint the signs (simple printing of three sheets of 8 1/2" x 11" paper to slide into plastic holders), they said it "didn't matter" because the cubicle display was soon to be dismantled.

Spelling is important, just as correct spoken grammar is important. That topic can wait for another day.

© 2008 GUS PHILPOTT