Spillchucker
By Callimachus | Related entries in Comedy, Kitchen Sink, TechnologyI read recently on Eugene Volokh’s site that spellcheckers in common word-processing programs don’t recognize the nickname of “Lighthorse” Harry Lee — Robert E. Lee’s Revolutionary War hero father — as a word.
“With a nickname like that, history remembers Lee as a man of action, forever in motion.” Not any more. Spellcheckers change it to “Lighthouse.” He says it’s beginning to turn up on the Internet that way — and so it is.
I found “Lighthouse Harry” in the Texas Archival Resources site, the Lonesome Pines Cabin tourist attraction site, and Wilmington News Journal’s listing of New Castle County, Del., tourist attractions.
Curiously, the mistake also got into an online version of Groucho Marx’s satirical letter berating the Warner Brothers over legal use of the title of “A Night in Casablanca” (Warner said it tread on the toes of their “Casablanca”). Groucho reminded Harry Warner that his name, too had been used before:
As for you, Harry, you probably sign your checks, sure in the belief that you are the first Harry of all time and that all other Harrys are imposters. I can think of two Harrys that preceeded you. There was Lighthorse Harry of Revolutionary fame and a Harry Appelbaum who lived on the corner of 93rd Street and Lexington Avenue. Unfortunately, Appelbaum wasn’t too well known. The last I heard of him, he was selling neckties at Weber and Heilbroner.
That’s how it should read. This page, however, has “Lighthouse.” In Groucho’s case, I suspect, the alteration would be approved.
And to think, my editor has told us that failure to use a spellchecker is grounds for dismissal.
This entry was posted on Monday, July 25th, 2005 and is filed under Comedy, Kitchen Sink, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 25th, 2005 at 11:57 pm
That’s really very funny. Thank you.
July 26th, 2005 at 1:07 am
Sort of like the satirical “Lieutenant Kijé” story (subject of a
Prokofiev suite).
Listening to a report, the Czar mistakes parootchiki je (“the lieutenants, howeverâ€Â?) for Parootchik Kijé “Lieutenant Kijé,” and asked about the fellow.
No one at the court was bold enough to tell the Czar he had made an error; instead the terrified administrators improvised, then hastily forged a paper trail of the mythical officer’s life and career.
The plan worked so well it backfires; the Czar wanted to meet his dashing soldier, but the administrators resolved their problem by killing off the fictional Kijé.
Or so the story goes.
July 26th, 2005 at 12:39 pm
I think I’ve seen about forty Beetle Bailey cartoons with the exact same theme. Maybe Mort Walker was a Prokofiev fan.
July 26th, 2005 at 2:28 pm
That was a MASH episode as well. Tuttle