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What's your favorite spellcheck suggested replacement?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Full of Shit, Feb 11, 2008.

  1. Dessens71

    Dessens71 Member

    Butch Davis = Butt Advice
     
  2. sportschick

    sportschick Active Member

    The worst case of spellcheck replacement that ran from my world -- Underserved replaced with undeserved in a story about doctors working in small towns.

    Yea, that one went over well.
     
  3. ballscribe

    ballscribe Active Member

    We had a pretty veteran guy doing some backup on baseball for a few years, as well as some tennis, before he retired. And the spellcheck thing pretty much had him flummoxed.
    A couple i remember:
    Felipe Alou turned into "Feline Aloud". Hideki Irabu turned into "Haddock Aroma."

    And Elena Makarova turned into "Elena Microwave."

    He would just change everything that came up, and send it in like that, sending the desk into hysterics on deadline. Went on for months.

    Finally, when I got wind of it, I sat in front of his laptop and inputted all of the players and coaches' names into his dictionary to solve the problem. But we still laugh about it.
     
  4. Barsuk

    Barsuk Active Member

    Some serious competition here for the name of my band (if I ever learn to play an instrument and start a band). Hmmm...The Hideous Gnomes or the Trashcan Sinatras? 8)
     
  5. Rosie

    Rosie Active Member

    I can't think of any specific examples right now, but the spell check game was one of our favorites back in my days at the weekly. I usually had the most fun at the beginning of the fall sports season -- new names and lots of crazy suggestions.
     
  6. Steak Snabler

    Steak Snabler Well-Known Member

    We had a stringer on deadline who got a little trigger-happy with the spellcheck replace and submitted a story containing the phrase:

    "[Smith] hit a they at the buzzard, sending the game into overtime."

    They = trey; buzzard = buzzer
     
  7. kingcreole

    kingcreole Active Member

    Used to work at a paper where the city manager's name was Bob Halloran. His name showed up as "Bob Halloween" in spellcheck. One year way back when, Halloween was postponed because it was cold. Some people were mad and this caused a stink. Well, be damned if the guy's name didn't show up in the story about Halloween being postponed as "Bob Halloween."

    I heard ol' Bob wasn't too happy with that story.
     
  8. Oggiedoggie

    Oggiedoggie Well-Known Member

    On our system, "Obama" comes back as "Osama."

    Either spellcheck is trying to fry our ass, or our IT folks aren't the sharpest tools in the shed.

    Or both.
     
  9. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    I don't remember what paper it was, but about a decade ago an editor accidentally hit "replace all" on the spell check and it changed every proper name in a story about one of the local teams. It made the final edition....

    Luckily, it was the SE who did it and since management is almost never held accountable, nobody was fired.
     
  10. beardpuller

    beardpuller Active Member

    Luddite alert: I never use spellcheck. I think I'm a decent speller, and if I have any doubts, I have Merriam-Webster online among my favorites. I guess if I worked the desk these days I'd have to submit ... but right now, I don't.
    I do think though, we could use a "ledecheck" for people who might be prone to trot out "what a difference a year makes," etc.
     
  11. Steak Snabler

    Steak Snabler Well-Known Member

    Courage. Webster's defines it as ....

    ARRGGGGHHH!
     
  12. hockeybeat

    hockeybeat Guest

    Try to guess what Kunitz (as in the Anaheim Ducks' Ryan) gets changed to.
     
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