Wordcraft Community Home Page
Printer's Devilry - typos for effect and pleasure

This topic can be found at:
https://wordcraft.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/410600694/m/2791010043

June 05, 2006, 13:59
WLM
Printer's Devilry - typos for effect and pleasure
I'll start the ball rolling on this one with:

He was a rank and vile member of the Conservative Party.

Only rule is that the deliberate (and malevolent) typo MUST be justifiable by "thick fingers" - substituting a P for a W is really not on. Normal QWERTY layout applies.
June 05, 2006, 14:35
BobHale
Welcome WLM. Great to see a first post that looks as if the author intends to stick around.

I know this isn't really in the spirit of your new game (which I'll join in with later0 but I thought you might like one of my favourite P.G. Wodehouse poems.

Printer's Error

by P.G. Wodehouse

As o'er my latest book I pored,
Enjoying it immensely,
I suddenly exclaimed 'Good Lord!'
And gripped the volume tensely.
Golly!' I cried. I writhed in pain.
'They've done it on me once again!'
And furrows creased my brow.
I'd written (which I thought quite good)
'Ruth, ripening into womanhood,
Was now a girl who knocked men flat
And frequently got whistled at',
And some vile, careless, casual gook
Had spoiled the best thing in the book
By printing 'not'
(Yes,'not', great Scott!)
When I had written 'now'.

On murder in the first degree
The Law, I knew, is rigid:
Its attitude, if A kills B,
To A is always frigid.
It counts it not a trivial slip
If on behalf of authorship
You liquidate compositors.
This kind of conduct it abhors
And seldom will allow.
Nevertheless, I deemed it best
And in the public interest
To buy a gun, to oil it well,
Inserting what is called a shell,
And go and pot
With sudden shot
This printer who had printed 'not'
When I had written 'now'.

I tracked the bounder to his den
Through private information:
I said, 'Good afternoon', and then
Explained the situation:
'I'm not a fussy man,' I said.
'I smile when you put "rid" for "red"
And "bad" for "bed" and "hoad" for "head"
And "bolge" instead of "bough".
When "wone" appears in lieu of "wine"
Or if you alter "Cohn" to "Schine",
I never make a row.
I know how easy errors are.
But this time you have gone too far
By printing "not" when you knew what
I really wrote was "now".
Prepare,' I said, 'to meet your God
Or, as you'd say, your Goo or Bod,
Or possibly your Gow.'

A few weeks later into court
I came to stand my trial.
The Judge was quite a decent sort.
He said, 'Well, cocky, I'll
Be passing sentence in a jiff,
And so, my poor unhappy stiff,
If you have anything to say,
Now is the moment. Fire away.
You have?'
I said, 'And how!
Me lud, the facts I don't dispute.
I did, I own it freely, shoot
This printer through the collar stud.
What else could I have done, me lud?
He'd printed "not"...'
The judge said, 'What!
When you had written "now"?
God bless my soul! Gadzooks!' said he.
'The blighters did that once to me.
A dirty trick, I trow.
I hereby quash and override
The jury's verdict. Gosh!' he cried.
'Give me your hand. Yes, I insist,
You splendid fellow! Case dismissed.'
(Cheers, and a Voice 'Wow-wow!')

A statue stands against the sky,
Lifelike and rather pretty.
'Twas recently erected by
The P.E.N. committee.
And many a passer-by is stirred,
For on the plinth, if that's the word,
In golden letters you may read
'This is the man who did the deed.
His hand set to the plough,
He did not sheathe the sword, but got
A gun at great expense and shot
The human blot who'd printed "not"
When he had written "now".
He acted with no thought of self,
Not for advancement, not for pelf,
But just because it made him hot
To think the man had printed "not"
When he had written "now".'


"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
June 05, 2006, 21:03
Kalleh
Welcome, WLM! Big Grin

Nice game, but I'll have to think on this one.
June 06, 2006, 06:34
<Asa Lovejoy>
Not a thick finger mistake, but a lack of knowledge led to an ad in my local paper stating, "Gambler's fly free!" A gold-plated zipper, perhaps? The ad was trying to promote trips to Las Vegas - but for what I'm not quite sure! Roll Eyes
June 06, 2006, 20:35
Kalleh
A beautiful quote from Yeats:

"And say my glory was I had suck friends."
June 07, 2006, 05:23
Caterwauller
Around here in August, you often hear "it's not the heat, it's the humidity" that is so bad.

My sister will often say "it's not the hate, it's the stupidity."

Not really what you're looking for - but close.


*******
"Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.
~Dalai Lama