Plain stupity; and say "vote for my film instead of "Avatar,"

There is a stupid typo on the Yahoo! Canada homepage today. While the producer of Hurt Locker blames his "naivete, ignorance of the rules and plain stupidity" for an email he sent out, I have to wonder what the Yahoo! folks have for an excuse for changing plain stupidity to plain stupity. Ridiculous. And then...

... in the article that plain stupity links to - "Email gaffe could hurt 'Avatar's' biggest competition" on Yahoo! Canada News on February 26, 2010 - there is a closing quotation mark missing from the first quote above.

"I get maybe a 100 call a day."

You can't be serious. "A 100 calls" - how can a professional writer think that that's right? "I get maybe a one hundred calls a day" - is that what the writer is wanting to write? Because that's exactly what the writer wrote. Either replace 100 with hundred, or jettison the a. I'm guessing the employee said "I get maybe a hundred calls a day", so why not write exactly that? This is from "Olympics are big business; and business is very good" in today's 24H Vancouver.

Milos eyes

Milos eyes were liquid with integrity, and his artless and uncorrected face was lustrous with a shining mixture of sweat and insect repellent. -- page 256, chapter 24 "Milo", in Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.

It's odd that there is no apostrophe at all. The chapter's title gives you the character's name: Milo. Therefore, the sentence should open with Milo's eyes.

8-2; Weber.. scored what turned out to be the winner;

Not a very good day for 24H Vancouver. This is the fifth and final post documenting errors from today's paper, and these posts are all just errors that were detected. I want to spend less time on this blog, but if 24H keeps insulting its readers with error after error, then I'm compelled to share the errors. One might think that 24H Vancouver would want to be on its very best behaviour these days, what with a huge number of people visiting for the Olympics and surely at least some of them glancing through the paper each day, particularly the sports section. These posts indicate that that's clearly not the case. Okay, on to the details of this post, from "Goodbye Germany, hello Russia" in today's 24H Vancouver. It was an 8-2 final. Remember that.

Okay, in the fifth paragraph we learn that Rick Nash scored the first goal of his 10-game Olympic career. That's nice. Remember that. Shea Weber scored the winning goal, which means he must have scored the third Canadian goal since Germany scored twice. Okay, cool. Remember that.

Uh oh. Shortly after Weber scored, Jarome Iginla scored to make it 3-0. So Iginla, and not Weber, scored the winner. Yup, research shows that Weber had the second Canadian goal - in other words, not the winner. The word at should be removed to leave scored just a little more than a minute after. Better, yes?

This paragraph is suddenly in the present tense. The game was last night. Rewrite: Team Canada dominated Germany in the first period last night, but only had a 1-0 lead to show for it.

In the seventeenth - and penultimate - paragraph, we once again learn that Rick Nash scored the first goal of his 10-game Olympic career.

Thornewaite

Jane's last name in the headline - of "Thornewaite faces drunk driving charge" in 24H Vancouver on February 24, 2010 - and in the photo caption is Thornewaite. Her last name in the article's only mention is Thornthwaite. To recap: twice it's Thornewaite, once it's Thornthwaite. Which do you think is correct? I went with the majority and thought Thornewaite. I was wrong. Here's the proof.

women's biathalon

It takes a special sort of misspelling to add a syllable to a word. The three-syllable word the writer (of "Hi from Whistler" in 24H Vancouver on February 24, 2010) is trying to spell is biathlon.

a new record under out belts; Creeggan and Hearn

What an odd thing for Ed Robertson to say: Under out belts. Maybe it's a nod to playing gigs and belting out songs. Or maybe the writer - of "BNL ‘feeling really natural now’" in today's 24H Vancouver - meant to write under our belts. I would've overlooked that error, but the article's writer wasn't done:
On the surface it looks perfectly fine. But what if I told you that only Ed Robertson had previously been mentioned and this was the only instance of Creeggan and Hearn being named? Would you wonder where there first names were?

the disapointing results

Do you think this writer - of "Spill your guts" in 24H Vancouver on February 24, 2010 - finds his spelling abilities disappointing?

Is it more important for Canada to win gold in hockey of lead the medal standings?

With "Today's poll" in yesterday's 24H Vancouver as proof, proofreading clearly wasn't important to the writers and editors of the daily newspaper. Of should be or.

direct the puck between Millers' pads

Try again, writer (of "Epic puck battle ends in loss" in 24H Vancouver on February 22, 2010). The goalie's name is Ryan Miller; now try to place the apostrophe in the correct place.

Woods must get rid of 'sychophants'

The above image is from the Yahoo! Canada homepage on February 22, 2010. A combination of psycho and sycophants, perhaps? After clicking to the article, one sees the same misspelling in the headline:

The word's only appearance in the article, in the sixth paragraph, is correct as sycophants.

It's more important then using this condom.

The answers from people on the street to the questions in 24H Vancouver's "5 on 5" - in this case "Why is it so important for Canada to win hockey gold?" on February 22, 2010 - are given verbally. Therefore, Thomas is not to blame for the then-for-than error. That's purely 24H's fault.

Theyre the ones whove answered the bell; Whats more

There must be a shortage of apostrophes at Yahoo! Canada News. How else to explain the excerpt above - from "Record week for Vancouver public transit" on February 21, 2010 - which features three missing apostrophes? Click the image to enlarge it.

Jon Montgomery wins Canada's forth gold medal

The written article - "Montgomery gives Canada more dramatic gold" on Vancouver Now on February 20, 2010 - correctly identifies Jon Montgomery as Canada's fourth gold medallist, but in the video at the start of the article, there is trouble with the word fourth.

Nichol's son

As you can see from the paragraph's first word, the mother's last name is Nichols. As you can see from Nichol's son, the writer of this article - "Parents eye looming out-of-school program closure" in The Vancouver Courier on February 17, 2010 - didn't put the apostrophe in the right place.

BMAC, Team 1040; Barry Macdonald

This is classic 24H Vancouver. On page four of yesterday's paper they printed five responses to their "5 on 5" question, What’s the highlight of the Games so far? The second best part: two of the five responses are from the same person - Einhorn is Finkle! Finkle is Einhorn! BMAC is Barry Macdonald! The best part: the different wording, capitalization, and punctuation.

AND MUCH MORE... EST BEAUCOUP PLUS...

If you haven't heard, the Olympics are happening right now in Metro Vancouver and Whistler. There has been some discussion about the French language and whether it's been sufficiently present at events such as the opening ceremonies. On January 29 I was at the Vancouver International Airport to catch a plane, and the bottom sign above caught my eye. All the signs are English on top, French on bottom, and all are correctly written in both languages, except the bottom one. "And much more" does not translate to "est beaucoup plus" - the French est translates to the English is. The word and in English is et in French. The added S is just one little letter that doesn't change the pronunciation, but it does change the meaning significantly.

men's speedskting

When writing an article on speedskating - as is the case with "Ice scream" Men's speedskating delayed by broken ice resurfacer" on Fourth-Place Medal (Yahoo! Canada Sports) on February 15, 2010 - I strongly recommend spelling speedskating correctly.

still hitting speeds in access of 140km/h

This is from "Lugers say modified Whistler track is too slow" on Vancouver Now on February 13, 2010. The article is on the CBC website, Vancouver Now appears to be an Olympic blog, and the story is provided by National Post. You'd think the writer, or an editor somewhere along the line, would realize that the phrase is in excess of.

Boston Pizza is showing its got its heart in the right place this Valentine's Day.

After incorrectly inserting an apostrophe into its in a February 11 article, 24H Vancouver is again showing it's unsure how to use apostrophes - this time leaving it out of the first its above, which is clearly a contraction of it has. This time the article is "BP has heart" from February 12, 2010.

showcasing it's cutting-edge effort

This writer - of "Tech report" in 24H Vancouver on February 11, 2010 - is showcasing an ignorance in the realm of apostrophes. It's its.

A week before athletes the biggest event in B.C. Place's history, workers received pink slips.

The same writer who wrote the article featured in the last post also wrote this one ("Layoffs at B.C. Place" in 24H Vancouver on February 11, 2010). The last article was at the bottom of a page, and this one was at the top of the very next page. Nonsense continued. Perhaps athletes snuck in, because the sentence makes sense without it. Or maybe there are missing words.

"It's not a sporting body to say put more cops there, or put more bodies there," Rogge said Monday. this is not our competence."

A puzzling end to 24H Vancouver's "Relaxed security at the Games" on February 11, 2010. Should this be capitalized? Or are there missing words that should precede this? One thing I know: there is a closing quotation mark without an opening quotation mark.

They must have their reasons, but what would there reasons be?

The writer and editor must have their reasons for not proofreading "Bailey snubbed" in 24H Vancouver on February 11, 2010, but what would their reasons be?

over a nearly 45,000-kilometer (28,000-mile route.

There is a missing character in the above excerpt from "Rain, rumors, impatience as opening nears" on Yahoo! Canada Sports on February 11, 2010 - a closing parenthesis after mile.

How difficult or easy it for men to meet women in this city?

How difficult or easy is it to proofread what you've written before publishing? For this writer - of "Trying to understand men in 10 questions" in 24H Vancouver on February 5, 2010 - it appears to be very difficult.

some bazaar requests

The writer of 24H Vancouver's "Pauly says ‘no’ to engaged couple" on February 5, 2010, couldn't spell bizarre right.