Comments on: A Cautionary Tale…

By: Sue Hubberstey

Sue Hubberstey — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 09:36:45 +0000

There are whole books on these horrors. One of the most famous is ancient but still a favourite: Kitchener Flies Back to Front. My own favourites occurred in publications I have worked on: ‘Make and Play with Valerie Janitch’, ‘The Children are playing with their balls’ and ‘Knit yourself a sheath’. As a sub I pointed out the inappropriateness of the last one but the dear old lady who was editor at the time had no idea what I was talking about! Another well known boob was a headline in The Guardian above a story about the ‘Farts Council’.
Apparently many newspapers, including nationals, now believe that sub editors are unnecessary and writers can do their own proof reading and editing. This means there are bound to be many more hilarious cock ups. Oh joy.

By: siobhan

siobhan — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:08:01 +0000

These are brilliant! Darren and Anna, tonight I shall be dreaming of fanny displays and turd wrestling!!!
Lesley – I hope you failed that pupil – or at the very least got them to buy you a compensatory tub of Olay…

By: Darren

Darren — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 22:00:40 +0000

HA ha ha! Brilliant. It reminds me of the time I made a display of books in the library in a fan-shape, and when I came back after leave it was gone. I asked where it was by crying, ‘Where’s my fanny display?’

By: Lesley Atkins

Lesley Atkins — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:38:24 +0000

Oh the joys of typos and spelling errors! Teaching myself I see many gems daily from my troop of seven year olds that are far too rude to post anywhere!

I recall one child very earnestly writing that one form of heinous vandalism is gravity. Well it may be vandalising my face, but really she didn’t need to get quite so personal!

By: Anna May Mangan

Anna May Mangan — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:31:59 +0000

Brilliant !

I once wrote about a woman who I described as ‘wrestling with her motions’ – and I really meant emotions……
Anna May x