Simanaitis Says
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REWRITE? CLARIFY? STET?
ODDITIES APPEARING in print are fun to collect. Most of my collection consists of straight news items. Others are typos either corrected or left unaltered. I share the latter with the hope that it won’t sic the typo dogs on me.
Berlin – A 73-year-old man who used an air-raid siren to stun his wife into submission has had it confiscated by German police. “My wife never lets me get a word in edgeways,” the man identified as Vladimir R. told Mannheim police. “So I crank up the siren and let it rip for a few minutes. It works every time. Afterwards, it’s real quiet.” Neighbors had complained about noise from the 220-volt rooftop device. Rosina, Vladimir’s wife of 32 years, said she sometimes had to yell to get her husband’s attention. “My husband is a stubborn mule so I have to get loud,” she said.
Sydney – Troy Bowron was awarded more than $30,000 in suing an inn after he broke his arm when he slipped on a floor made greasy by Ross Lucock, who was wearing pork chops for shoes. Lucock had been refused service for not wearing shoes so he taped the pork chops he had won at a raffle to his feet.
Long Beach – A murder trial was ordered for the wife of a Banning High School teacher who authorities say was duct taped to a chair, stabbed in the eye and pushed down stairs. Nancy Jean Larios, 56, insisted the Aug. 22 death of Luis Larios, 59, was an accident.
Paris – More than 200 workers at Pfizer’s main European plant have gone on strike for a greater share of profits from the drug produced there. The headline: Viagra Men Down Tools.
From the Orange County Register – A Romanian court threw the Balkan country’s exiled monarchy into turmoil Friday, ruling that a 75-year-old “bastard” prince, Mircea Grigore Lambrino, was in fact heir to King Carol II. In a case better suited to 18th-century Europe than the late 20th century, the court heard a Byzantine royal tale of an elopement and secret marriage, later annulled, between King Carol and socialite Ioana Zoe “Zizi” Lambrino.
Port St. Lucie, Fla. – A jury today decides whether to recommend sending 18-year-old Victor Brancaccio to the electric chair or life in prison for beating to death an elderly woman who criticized the vulgar rap music lyric he was singing. The jury Tuesday convicted Brancaccio of first-degree murder in the June slaying of Mollie Mae Frazier, 78. Brancaccio’s parents, Gene and Lina Brancaccio of Fort Pierce, lost their home and sold their business to pay for their son’s insanity defense, then won a $2.82 million lottery prize in February.
From Britain’s Daily Mirror – Keith Sanderson lost the tip of his thumb in a factory guillotine in Newcastle upon Tyne. He then cut off a finger showing his manager how it had happened.
From The New York Times – Correction: An article on Nov. 25 about artist Malcolm Morley… misstated what kind of aerial battles he watched from the rooftops during the London blitz. He and his friends watched dogfights—not duck fights.
From The Coast News “Beach Breaks” – Robert Rabbin, a catalyst for clarity, …
Yes, this is how I see myself as well. ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2012
Simanaitis Says 
Decades ago, the NY Times had a headline “Irish protest British policy of interment without trial.” “And well they might,” I thought. That error got corrected before the Times was digitized, but do a Web search for “Interment without trial” and you’ll see it’s a surprisingly common error.