Jamie Reidy comments on his own spelling woes following the Romney App’s “Amercia” blunder.
Fox News reports that the newly available app from the Romney campaign had one little problem:
Twitter went wild Tuesday night when it was discovered that the Romney campaign had misspelled the word “America” on its new iPhone app that launched only hours earlier.
Naturally, funny people had a field day with this:
“Whew, I hear Mitt’s updating that misspelled Amercia on his app. He’s just going with Untied States now,” read one tweet.
Another tweeted, “AMERCIA TEH BUETIFLU.”
I’d love to make fun of this gaffe, but I cannot. In 1993, I started my job as an Army personal officer in Japan and learned my duties included editing my Military Intelligence Brigade’s quarterly newspaper. #JobNobodyElseWanted
We were lucky enough to publish each issue at the “Stars and Stripes” offices located in Tokyo; harboring dreams of someday being a writer, I felt so cool to work – albeit for just a few hours – in a real newsroom. Minutes before I sent my first edition to the printer, the Stars and Stripes sports editor glanced over my shoulder at the front page.
“You probably wanna spell ‘intelligence’ correctly for an intelligence brigade newspaper,” he said. I chuckled. Riiiight. As if I’d ever… Then, breaking into a sweat, I peeked down.
Sure enough, I’d spelled it ‘intellgence’. (Note: spellcheck wasn’t automatic like it is now, and I hadn’t run it, because I was an idiot second lieutenant – redundant.)
If not for this man’s random glance, I would have printed 500 copies of that newspaper and mailed them all around the Pacific Rim. Gulp.
So, no I will not be hopping on the Romney’s-An-Idiot bandwagon today. Not mee.
About Jamie Reidy
You say potatoe, I say potato.
I don’t fault anyone for bad spelling. We all make all sorts of errors when we type. THIS is bad proofreading, bad editing, and more bad proofreading, which gives a very bad impression about the campaign itself. This is not just a individual boo-boo. This is a bad sign for a whole organization. (And, yes, I’m biased, but I like to think if the Obama people did the same thing I’d make fun of them just as much.)
Perhaps this creates some deniability if he gets elected: “Read the fine print. I didn’t say I’d be good for ‘America.’ I said I’d be good for the country called ‘Amercia.’ ”
I call dibs on “Amercia.” If the name is still available, I’d like to copyright it somehow. Perhaps a mythical, counterfactual historical fantasy country like in a Turtledove novel? Hands off, people, I saw it first!
To be fair, Romney would be in good company. Andrew Jackson, the Prez on the 20 dollar bill, was known for saying “I never could trust a man who only know one way to spell a word.”
I’m going to bet that this probably wasn’t even Romney that did this, just as I’m willing to bet the Obama campaign’s “Life of Julia” (or whatever that thing was called) site was not actually programmed by Obama
BTW, Jamie, whose personal officer were you? Weren’t you really in personnel?
(Sorry, couldn’t resist. But it’s a good opportunity to point out that misspelling is commonly taken to be a marker of manliness, and for that reason, a symbol of decisive, take-action conservatism, such as Gov. Romney would like to be identified with. Watch Fox News awhile and you’ll see quite a few botched captions, more, I think, than other news outlets.)
Besides, proofreading and editing are strongly feminine-coded occupations. I know; I’ve done both professionally. If you’re not a woman or a gay man – and I’m neither – it’s not Real Work for you, and you have something to answer for.
Pwlsax – Thanks for pointing that out! What a moron I am. Cracking up.
He was simply paying homage to The Agency.