Honk if you love editors

It's my birthday week! That means I get to do whatever I want all week (as opposed to other weeks, when I am the epitome of self-restraint), which so far means reading new poetry books and guzzling wine on the balcony (again, in great contrast to other weeks). And today, it means that I get to blog about grammatical errors!

My mom was telling me awhile ago that one of her friends had recently published a children's book, and she said, "See, anybody can get published." Unfortunately, this is true. I keep this file at work with all of the literary blunders I come across (because I'm strange, okay?), and it's kind of unreal. Sometimes I want to write hate mail to the publishers. Today I saw "illicit" used in place of "elicit" in the first paragraph of a book on how to create professional presentations. These words are not interchangeable. Are you sure you're qualified to help me create a presentation? Still, thanks for the laugh. I've also learned that my favorite cliche opening is actually quite popular among people who write introductions for books; that is, "Since ____, humankind has ______." "Since the dawn of time, humankind has searched for meaning." You don't say?! I never thought about it that way before. Or, my favorite, straight from a biology textbook: "Since the beginning of civilization, man has been entranced by the sea." Oh, really? Do you have a source for that bold statement? Sheesh, people.

I think I might have posted this before, but this calls for my favorite Dinosaur Comic ever:


Oh also! It was this guy's birthday yesterday, so if you see him reading poetry and guzzling wine, it's okay because it's his birthday week, too (actually, if you see him doing that, you should probably be concerned).

Yeah, I know.