In the website CNN.com's article about the death of skater Nancy Kerrigan's father, an interesting exchange occurred. In the comment portion one guest observed that alleged murderer, Mark Kerrigan (Son of the murdered Kerrigan) was a "moron." He (or she) included the belated advice to not "get all hoped [sic] up on goof-balls..." Goof balls is the street term for barbiturates such as phenobarbital. Aside from this unsupported accusation, the poster omitted one "p" from the comment and therefore created a malapropism as "hoped" is a past tense form of the verb "to hope". Although one can translate the comment, this renders the sentence literally meaningless, as another anonymous poster pointed out 46 minutes later, thus turning an article about a tragic patricide into a lesson in proofreading.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Person Points Out Spelling Error In Comment and Feels Superior for 2 Seconds...
Cyberspace, today
In the website CNN.com's article about the death of skater Nancy Kerrigan's father, an interesting exchange occurred. In the comment portion one guest observed that alleged murderer, Mark Kerrigan (Son of the murdered Kerrigan) was a "moron." He (or she) included the belated advice to not "get all hoped [sic] up on goof-balls..." Goof balls is the street term for barbiturates such as phenobarbital. Aside from this unsupported accusation, the poster omitted one "p" from the comment and therefore created a malapropism as "hoped" is a past tense form of the verb "to hope". Although one can translate the comment, this renders the sentence literally meaningless, as another anonymous poster pointed out 46 minutes later, thus turning an article about a tragic patricide into a lesson in proofreading.
In the website CNN.com's article about the death of skater Nancy Kerrigan's father, an interesting exchange occurred. In the comment portion one guest observed that alleged murderer, Mark Kerrigan (Son of the murdered Kerrigan) was a "moron." He (or she) included the belated advice to not "get all hoped [sic] up on goof-balls..." Goof balls is the street term for barbiturates such as phenobarbital. Aside from this unsupported accusation, the poster omitted one "p" from the comment and therefore created a malapropism as "hoped" is a past tense form of the verb "to hope". Although one can translate the comment, this renders the sentence literally meaningless, as another anonymous poster pointed out 46 minutes later, thus turning an article about a tragic patricide into a lesson in proofreading.
