The Great Typo Hunt_ Two Friends Changing the World, One Correction at a Time - Jeff Deck [0]
AND THE GRAMMATICAL WORLD HE’LL INHERIT
or • thog • ra • phy (ôr-thŏg′rə-fē)
n. pl. or • thog • ra • phies
1. The art or study of correct spelling according to established usage.
2. The aspect of language study concerned with letters and their sequences in words.
3. A method of representing a language or the sounds of language by written symbols; spelling.
—The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE
DEDICATION
1 | How to Change the World
June 8–10, 2007 (Hanover, NH)
2 | Allies
June 2007–February 2008 (Somerville, MA)
3 | First Hunt
February 23–March 4, 2008 (Somerville and Boston, MA)
4 | Benjamin Joins the Party
March 9, 2008 (Rockville, MD)
5 | Maladies
March 11–12, 2008 (Kill Devil Hills, NC, to Myrtle Beach, SC)
6 | Beneath the Surface
March 15–16, 2008 (Atlanta, GA)
7 | Fear and Retail
March 17–18, 2008 (Mobile, AL, to New Orleans, LA)
8 | Davy Jones Isn’t a Biblical Figure
March 20, 2008 (Lafayette, LA, to Galveston, TX)
9 | Typos Aren’t Charming
March 26–27, 2008 (Santa Fe, NM, to Flagstaff, AZ)
10 | Over the Edge
March 28, 2008 (Grand Canyon, AZ)
11 | Pressed
April 2–10, 2008 (Los Angeles, CA, to San Francisco, CA)
12 | You Got a Friend
April 12–17, 2008 (San Francisco, CA, to Vancouver, BC)
13 | Run-Time Errors
April 22–25, 2008 (Cataldo, ID, to Rapid City, SD)
14 | The Epic Chapter Wherein Heroes Battle and the Scenery Flashes Past
April 27–May 1, 2008 (Minneapolis, MN; Madison, WI; Chicago, IL; Bloomington, IN; Cincinnati, OH; Newport, KY)
15 | Why Hudson Can’t Read
May 2–6, 2008 (Athens, OH, to Cleveland, OH)
16 | How Do You Deal?
May 11–16, 2008 (Albany, NY, to Manchester, NH)
17 | The Welcome-Back Committee
May 17–22, 2008 (Somerville, MA)
18 | Court of Opinion
August 10–12, 2008 and the days that followed (Dallas–Fort Worth, TX; Phoenix and Flagstaff, AZ)
19 | A Place for Starting Things
September 13–15, 2009 (Divers locations in and offshore from the Boston, MA, area)
APPENDIX: A Field Guide to Typo Avoidance
REFERENCES
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
COPYRIGHT
1 | How to Change the World
June 8–10, 2007 (Hanover, NH)
Wherein Jeff Deck, unassuming Editor, has his measure taken by a flurry of his peers and learns that his Destiny is to serve a Higher Cause; whereupon he recognizes the Sign of his quest in an errant sign which warns ’gainst either geographic indiscretion or trading locks of hair.
On a fine June weekend in 2007, in the verdant reaches of northern New Hampshire, I decided to change the world.
The world needed changing—that I knew. Global warming threatened to give us all a lethal tan; war and poverty decimated whole nations; crops worldwide were shriveling; even our brethren beasts menaced us with their monkeypox and bird flu and mad cow disease. I just couldn’t figure out what I could do for our troubled civilization.
Those thoughts echoed in my head as I drove into the idyllic little town of Hanover, New Hampshire, for my five-year college reunion. I’d been toying with the idea of a road trip. Oil addiction and carbon emissions aside, I had to count myself among the many Americans who regarded their cars as a signifier for freedom itself. Any day I could get into my iron steed and—escape. I hadn’t, so far, but I could. I could explore the country, embark on towering adventures, and simultaneously fulfill some noble purpose. Yes, a road trip seemed like a fine idea, but I didn’t know what was worth seeing and, more crucially, I didn’t know how to infuse the trip with the sparkling sap of magnificence. How do people blunder into conditions that their unique abilities alone can resolve? I couldn’t trust that I would wander into a situation where only my intimate knowledge of Final Fantasy lore would defuse a standoff between two rival video-game-obsessed street gangs. I pondered that as I pulled into a parking spot and ventured off to find my classmates.
To exacerbate the matter, it turned out that five years was more than enough time for my fellow