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U.S. NEWS Thursday 16 February 2017

American Humor:

Hey, Mr. President: It’s time to make spellcheck great again

NANCY BENAC deleted and fixed the typo. rect this, and perhaps that The Trump administration’s campaign and transition.
Associated Press On Monday, a White House would be a good idea.” spelling challenges extend In December, he referred
WASHINGTON (AP) — Time release on the president’s Spellcheck would help a beyond the White House. to the Chinese seizure of
to make spellcheck great phone call with Colombian lot, he says, adding, “A lot The Education Department a U.S. Navy drone as “un-
again. President Juan Manuel San- of these words aren’t rock- last week made a double presidented.” The tweet
The mangled spellings that tos referred to the country et science.” gaffe when it tweeted a was deleted and the word
were a staple of Donald at one point as “Colum-
Trump’s presidential cam- bia.”
paign are flourishing in the Just nitpicking? Does it re-
White House. ally matter?
It started on Trump’s first “It really goes to the heart
full day in office, when he of credibility,” says Sue
described himself as “hon- Burzynski Bullard, a board
ered” to serve as the 45th member at the American
president. Copy Editors Society and
(Tweeted at 12:02 p.m.; a professor at the Univer-
deleted and replaced at sity of Nebraska-Lincoln. “If
12:11 p.m.) you can’t get basic spelling
This was probably not a and grammar right, people
typo: Trump had used the start to wonder what else
same spelling a year earli- you got wrong.”
er, when he tweeted that it Little details count, she
was an “honer” to win post- says, pointing out Trump’s
debate polls. errant use of a hyphen in a
But on to more serious mat- Wednesday morning tweet
ters, such as foreign affairs. in which he referred to “this
Trump’s first presidential visit Russian connection non-
with a foreign leader was sense.”
with British Prime Minister “Where does that come Misspelled words are highlighted in this photograph made in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 15,
Theresa May in January. from?” she asked. 2017, of a Feb. 6, 2017 White House press release on terror attacks. Time to make spellcheck great
The White House schedule Her advice to the Trump again. The mangled spellings that were a staple of Trump’s presidential campaign are flourishing
twice referred to the British White House: “They need to in the White House.
leader as “Teresa May” — slow down and edit them- (AP Photo/J. David Ake)
who happens to be a Brit- selves, or hire some edi-
ish topless model and porn tors.” The White House stressed it quotation from W.E.B. Du- corrected to “unprece-
star. She does allow that every- has put out nearly 400 press Bois that spelled the Afri- dented.”
Vice President Mike one makes the occasional releases, statements and can-American sociologist’s During the presidential
Pence’s office made the typo and that people “get fact sheets as well as many last name with an “E.” It campaign, Trump ridiculed
same mistake. a little more license on Twit- more social media posts, later updated the post and GOP rival Marco Rubio as
(To be fair, so did the British ter.” and said it was “constantly offered “apologizes for the a “leightweight chocker,”
Embassy in Washington a Other spelling aficionados updating processes to en- earlier typo.” The mistakes faulted Ted Cruz for “L-Y-
month earlier. And the AP are less concerned. sure we are communicat- were blamed on a long- E-N’,” and tweeted that
itself at times has botched No less an authority than ing the president’s agenda time employee. commentator Lawrence
the spelling.) Jacques Bailly, the Univer- as articulately as possible.” The Library of Congress re- O’Donnell was “one of
This month brought serial sity of Vermont professor While its spelling issues cently posted sales market- the dummer people on
spelling malfunctions when who once a year calls out were far more limited, the ing material for an inaugu- television.” Obama’s first
the White House released the words at the Scripps Obama White House had ration poster that included name came out as “Bar-
a list of 78 terrorist attacks National Spelling Bee, isn’t its own bobbles. February a Trump quotation that rack” in a Trump tweet,
that it said had been un- too bothered. came out as “Feburary” said, “No dream is too big, famed basketball coach
der-reported by the media. “I can’t take it very seriously on a few press schedules in no challenge is to great.” Bobby Knight morphed into
The list misspelled “attaker” that somebody doesn’t 2015. And President Barack That should have been “Bobby Night” and the city
27 times. San Bernardino know how to spell,” he says. Obama memorably “too great.” The mistake of Phoenix became “Pho-
came out “San Bernadino.” “Spelling is not unimport- dropped an important “E’’ was attributed to a third- neix.”
Denmark came out “Den- ant, but there are a lot in praising Aretha Frank- party vendor. Perhaps Trump can get
makr.” more important things, like lin as the queen of soul in The administration’s out- some advice from the next
Over the weekend, Trump how you use the words and 2014: He was talking about sized share of spelling mis- winner of the spelling bee:
tweeted that he “playef the content of them.” her signature song and said takes shouldn’t come as Seven presidents, includ-
golf” with the Japanese But Bailly also offers this: that Franklin “told us what a surprise, given Trump’s ing Obama, have met with
prime minister, then quickly “There are ways to cor- R-S-P-E-C-T meant to her.” track record during the spelling champs.q