It’s time for another edition of “From the Files of…”, yes, those crazy stories I find in the news that I just can’t make up. I swear. At least this time I’ll start out with a cute one.  I have to admit; I read it because the title of the story made me go “huh?” It read “Cops were ‘lit’ and ‘turnt up’ at students’ prom, department says “. Now in my day, ‘lit’ meant either you’d been drinking, or were taking drugs, and I while I read “turnt”, my mind saw “tuned”, probably going back to the part about being lit up! This story is not about that, however and is a wonderful and fun little read.

Spell check, people. Seriously, why do professional writers fail this one so often? From a Politico article on May 30, 2018:

An “ustice Department”. Huh. That might explain much of what’s wrong in Washington. Update: After two tweets to the author and to Politico and Politico Mag, NO CORRECTIONS have been done as of July 4, 2018. 

And CNN on June 24, 2018

Here we lost the entire end of a sentence, and I guess this Johnson is describing, what, new wedding vows called “the do”? Update: As of July 4, this was corrected. Kudos to author Eli Watkins!

I do try to avoid clickbait articles, but every once in a while I just have to go to the ones on Trendchaser. If you haven’t, they’re often titled things like “the funniest things kids said this week” or “the best notes left on badly parked cars”. In keeping with our theme, from “Teachers Who Are Out to Get Their Students” (I included the link, they’re hilarious!)

Sadly, I also just saw a story about Tina Turner’s son committing suicide, at People.com and while the article may have been spell checked, it certainly wasn’t proofread. Someone might be a tool, but things take a toll. Yikes.

We’ll see how long it takes the writer to correct that biggie. Update: less than 24 hours after I tweeted to her that “spell check is NEVER replaced by proofreading.” Kudos to Alexia Fernandez for actually following up!

To wrap it all up, back to fun and lighthearted. Because it’s important to never take ourselves too seriously, I love it when a big corporation adopts that mindset as well. Take a look at the most recent tweet from Airbus, about the new transport plane that will go into service in 2019, called the Beluga XL. I love the paint job, and the accompanying text is awfully punny as well!

Happy Independence Day, celebrate safely! If you’re from slightly north, I offer my sincere apologies to Canada on behalf of the US, and Happy Canada Day!