Spell Cheque

It doesn't mean squat if your typo is a word. The following is brought to you by the letters: S, E, A, and N,

That comma is optional. I choose to use it. You can abandon it, but I like it, so leave my commas before ands alone.

I received an email at work today, as I often do, from a sales rep at a newspaper who will never come to my town. He will never pay a visit, never even make a phone call. Yet this twerp thinks that by sending me an email I will bite on a 1x3 ad for $1020. No, I did not write that wrong, one thousand and twenty dollars for an ad bigger than a match book, but smaller than a pack of smokes, in a community that has likely never heard of Glens Falls. Yeah, I'll take three. My organization has no ad budget to speak of, unless of course, you call the energy I create running on my hamster wheel as money, in which case, sign us up, this rodent can run.

I opted not to be a heartless, sarcastic hag and to reward his email with a response. The response was going to include an offer to share the "special rate" with our member ad agencies, which really meant I'd send it to Sean, a member with an ad agency. I figured he could see if it would work for a client, or he could mock it,

I figured wrong, he did neither. He mocked me* and my pointless spell checking ways.

Behold:

Subject: Nice ass.
From: sean@designtramp.com
Date: January 8, 2007 4:05:50 PM EST
To: amott@nycap.rr.com

Greg,

I do not have an ad budget, but I will ass this on to our member ad agencies.

Thanks and happy new year.
Amanda

Sean Magee
Principal, Brand Strategy • Trampoline Design, LLC


When Sean got home tonight I said, "Were you just being a smart ass, or did I really type that?"

"I just copied what you typed." He said with devilish delight.

"Oh. Well he wrote back and said thanks."

"I'm sure he did."

"Hey!"

"What? Let me just ass you something."

"Sean."

"Well, did you? Ass it along?"

To say I am mortified that of the 20 something words I typed, the one I messed up just had to be a word that, when not typed correctly, could spell ASS doesn't begin to cover it. The ass. The magnitude of my sorry-assness. Gawd!

Have you ever had this happen?

*Given the chance I would totally mock him, so quietly, I give Sean huge credit for catching my error and for rubbing my nose in it. Well played Magee, well played.