{"id":1384,"date":"2014-05-15T20:24:13","date_gmt":"2014-05-16T01:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/?p=1384"},"modified":"2014-05-15T20:24:13","modified_gmt":"2014-05-16T01:24:13","slug":"the-largest-typo-i-have-ever-missed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/the-largest-typo-i-have-ever-missed\/","title":{"rendered":"The Largest Typo I Have Ever Missed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Print this entry<\/a><\/p>

My hometown made the Huffington Post the other day with this item:<\/p>\n

A car dealership in Longview, Texas, is seeing the writing on the wall after discovering a huge spelling error on a billboard.<\/i><\/p>\n

Six months ago,\u00a0Gorman McCracken Mazda\u00a0put up a billboard announcing a “Piece Of Mind Warranty”\u00a0for all customers.<\/i><\/p>\n

Problem is, they meant a “Peace Of Mind Warranty.”<\/i><\/p>\n

The spelling error faces away from the building so it went unnoticed by employees until recently when typo-conscious customers have been giving the dealership a piece of their own minds, KLTV reports.<\/i><\/p>\n

“We\u2019ve had several people complain about it and we realize our mistake,” General Manager Travis Potter told the station.<\/i><\/p>\n

The dealership could change the sign, but has chosen to donate the amount that\u00a0it would cost to fix the sign\u00a0\u2014 about $250 \u2014 to the East Texas Literacy Council instead. <\/i><\/p>\n

|\u2014\u2014\u2014|<\/p>\n

During those past six months, when this egregious typographical error was displayed in 956-point or larger type, I drove by this sign at least five times a week on my way to work teaching journalism. This job entails teaching students how to write in new style, copy editing and yes, spotting typos.<\/p>\n

This is a definite \u201cfail,\u201d as the younger set says. I never noticed the mistake.<\/p>\n

I have a plethora of excuses. It is early in the morning as I pass by, so when I crest the hill by the old Cargill Theater \u2014 which the dealership bought some time back and installed this sign where the movie marquee once stood \u2014 I am in full Mental Preparation to Teach Mode, driving a few miles over the speed limit and watching the clock. But I have<\/i> noticed this sign because it was installed during the school year. I didn\u2019t exactly study<\/i> it, obviously, since I am not shopping for a new car. Still, sheesh. I can\u2019t believe I missed this. My dad is up above laughing at his middle-aged son, no doubt.<\/p>\n

See, he was a sign painter all his working life, the working part of which ended because of a botched operation unfortunately about the age I am now. Before that, he was widely considered one of the finest craftsmen around at hand-painted signs. He scoffed at computer-produced signs as being too perfect, and I tend to agree. His lettering looked like art, on signs that graced Longview for a couple decades. There are still a few examples around, but not many. He painted his last sign in 1990.<\/p>\n

My dad was terrified of spelling something wrong on a sign. He carried a battered dictionary along with his box of brushes in the 1971 Chevy Cheyenne truck he drove to jobs \u2014 the tailgate when opened splattered with paint from old jobs. After completing a major job, like a billboard for Weller\u2019s Whiskey on Estes Parkway, or much of the original signage for the menus at the Butcher Shop, he would take us around to see his work. My brother Scott and I delighted in telling him, \u201cLooks great, Dad, but you spelled \u2018cheeseburger\u2019 wrong.\u201d His head would snap back, quickly realize we were pulling his leg. Then he would try to dope-slap us, in a gentle, fatherly way, of course, as we started laughing.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure my dad spelled a few words wrong on a sign in his time and had to make corrections, but he was both meticulous and literate. He certainly would have hooted when the car dealership sign mistake came to light. I like to believe he would have noticed the first time we passed by, unlike his oldest son, who has made a living from words all his life and never noticed what was physically the largest typo I have personally witnessed.<\/p>\n

This business can be humbling; that\u2019s for sure.<\/p>\n

Print this entry<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Print this entryMy hometown made the Huffington Post the other day with this item: A car dealership in Longview, Texas, is seeing the writing on the wall after discovering a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[49,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2014-columns","category-columns"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1384"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1385,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1384\/revisions\/1385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}