When Good Words Go Bad / by Courtney Mehlhaff

I run across loads of interesting typos in my editing job. Some of them make sense; I can see how they might easily happen. Others are such freaks of nature that I can only assume the writer suffered an episode of some sort while typing. 

Still others are the amusing results of the perfect storm: a cut-and-paste error, a blatant disregard for spellcheck, and the rock-solid faith that someone like me will catch any mistakes before we're all horribly embarrassed.

I've taken the liberty of providing new definitions for two of my favorite examples:

possibilititties (noun, plural)

1. the contents of an A-cup bra: I hope he's not a boob man, because I'm only rocking possibilititties.

pooportunity (noun, singular)

1. a chance to use a restroom where a person will be completely undisturbed and/or undiscoverable: A private basement bathroom provided the perfect pooportunity.

It's glorious errors like these that pay my salary. And sometimes get me through the day with a super nerdy smile.