Posted by BJ on 11 January, 2007 under Word play & writing | 
A recent article in USA Today* reported on several typos that cost certain individuals a fair amount of money.
One such was for monies that were to go to cancer research. As the article highlighted, due to incorrect wording, rather than receiving the expected $13million, cancer research was only going to receive $1.03. And that’s not a typo there. They’ll receive a mere one dollar and three cents. And of course, given the way the government does things, the cancer research folks will need to wait till the government next convenes a session to rectify this (quite obvious) mistake.
The other typo they presented was one related to a tax to be imposed on cigarettes, to further increase the cost and thereby discourage smokers. The tax was to have been $.80 a pack, which is fairly significant. However, due to a typo in the wording of this resolution, here too the numbers were changed, and the actual amount was only $.08 a pack. Yep. Almost a whole penny. That ought to slow down those smokers, don’t you think?
These should help us keep the importance of proofreading and thorough reviews in mind.
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* I only get USA Today when it’s delivered to my hotel room. Now, I have never requested that the paper be delivered but it often shows up. I’ve always thought that the complimentary paper each morning was a nice touch. Imagine my surprise when I saw the fine print recently that stated the paper would be delivered, and I would be charged for it, unless I requested it not be delivered. Most clever on the part of the hotel (and I won’t be getting the paper in the future).
Posted by Jon on 9 January, 2007 under Musings, Processes & best practice |
Some organisations’ approach to proposals can best be described as “Disorganised chaos”. Yet it’s only two steps from there to being in control:
Disorganised chaos
Organised chaos
Organised
Where are you on the journey?
Posted by Jon on under Word play & writing |
Taking my father out for a surprise birthday party in early December, we came across this notice pinned to a window. I guess one might say that their choice of restaurant name had perhaps been a little inauspicious:
Still, at least they managed to bring their theme statement to life – albeit in perhaps rather too spectacular a way.
Posted by Jon on 5 January, 2007 under Musings |
I know that most readers look at this blog in office hours; some of your corporations might not encourage raucous laughter at your desks. But I just have to recommend a wonderful site, “Overheard in the Office”, which makes me giggle several times a day.
Take the following:
Employee: So, we were going to mail all these invoices, but instead we’re going to fax them since our postage machine died. Just put them on here and press start.
Temp: Okay! Got it.
Temp begins faxing.
Employee: Um, you have to take them out of the envelopes first.
(BJ and I once found an intern trying to feed a strip of plastic spiral binding through the holes in a document one by one; he hadn’t realised there was a machine to do the job. So I can sympathise with the temp in this story. Almost).
Or how about the following:
Tech support: Can you tell if it’s an Ethernet cable or a phone cable?
Customer: How do I tell?
Tech support: Well, if you hold it up to the cable attached to your phone and you look at the plug, if it looks the same, you’ve got a phone cable. If it’s bigger, it’s probably Ethernet.
Customer: Oh cool. Let me look.
Tech support: WAIT! [dial tone]
