WHY YOU SHOULD ALWAYS PROOFREAD

WHY YOU SHOULD ALWAYS PROOFREAD

By: Carole Blake

OK…so I’m a writer…and before I send out anything I’ve written – whether an email, text, article, or song lyrics – I proof it! No spelling or grammar mistakes for me! Hey, that’s just the way I am.

But recently, I’ve come across several instances which not only were “typos”, but were also hysterically funny! So I thought I’d share them with you. The funniest, however, is rather X-rated, so I won’t share exactly what was written, but I think you’ll get it!

My husband has a wonderful business which involves security hardware. For the last few years he no longer goes to his office, but rather he’s able to do all his work right from home. He’s at the computer many hours each day, and he deals with everyone; from the factories…the freight handlers…the buyers…like I said: Everyone! Sometimes he writes the same long and extremely detailed email to five or six people at one time. Generally, when he does that, he starts the email saying “Hello to All”. One day, however, he wrote a very complicated and detailed email, and unfortunately, he did NOT proof his ‘greeting’. And so…all six people were greeted with “Hell to All”. Happily none of the recipients took it personally, but we sure got a big laugh out of it!

In today’s world you really have to be “up” on what certain letters mean. For instance, BFF means Best Friends Forever; TBT means Throw Back Thursday; OMG means Oh My G-d. My son told me a story about an experience one of his friends had. It seems that his friend’s dog had unfortunately died, and he and his wife and kids were quite upset about it. He sent an email out to friends and family telling them about this sad event. His mother send an email back to him and said the following: “That is SO sad. We will miss our little friend. LOL”. Now we all know that LOL means “Laugh Out Loud”, and extremely inappropriate for this occasion. Of course his Mom meant “Lots of Love”, but it just goes to show that before using letters like these…CHECK OUT WHAT THEY MEAN!!!

And now for the funniest and X-rated story. I had recently sent out emails to a few couples inviting them to our home for a Sunday night dinner and some special fun activities. The invitation was in rhyme – pretty clever, if I say so myself – and the RSVPs were all cute. One friend, who is lovely, charming, intelligent, and fun, wrote an email back (from her phone) saying the following: “What fun fun fun SMD creative and imaginative and so nice to invite us to be a part of that fun. We can’t wait!

Well, aside from being really glad that she and her husband would be coming, I was filled with curiosity about SMD. What did that mean? I had never heard that before. So, as I often do, I went onto Google to find out. Well, here comes that “X-rated” stuff: SMD stands for “suck my d_ _ _!” (rhymes with ‘kick’!) Upon reading this, I totally cracked up. I called her right away and said, “I’m SO glad you guys will be coming, but do you really mean SMD?” I had called her on her house phone at the time, and she said “What? I have no idea what you’re talking about!” She then checked her mobile phone and saw what she had written and told me that it was definitely a typo. She had meant to say “What fun fun fun AND creative…etc.” On a keypad the ‘s’ is right near the ‘a’ and the ‘m’ is next to the ‘n’. And then I told her what I had learned from Google. Well, we were both hysterical laughing for ten minutes! After all, this lady – and I mean ‘lady’ – always minds her “Ps and Qs” (“pleases” and “thank-yous”; did you know that’s what that meant?)

So anyway, I thought I would share this experience in hopes that everyone spell checks and proofs the next time they write anything. I have done so in this piece up to now.

As I conclude, let me just say – in terms of writing – you must take control of all your consonants and bowels!

Oops!!!