Freshly Ground Black People

[iceberg08]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8627335.stm

The recipe was for spelt tagliatelle with sardines and prosciutto.

"When it comes to the proofreader, of course they should have picked it up, but proofreading a cook-book is an extremely difficult task. I find that quite forgivable," Mr Sessions said.

O rly???

[Japanfan]

"We're mortified that this has become an issue of any kind, and why anyone would be offended, we don't know," head of publishing Bob Sessions is quoted as saying by the Sydney newspaper.

Right. This was just a typo.

[IceAlisa]

How can one go from pepper to people is interesting...Even if this was a typo--doubt it but lets say it was--the subconscious implication is disturbing.

[reckless]

I'm sorry, but I wouldn't assume there is any wrongful mindset involved. When people type, they often develop tendencies to type certain words when they begin with certain letters. I almost never type "statue" correctly, because my fingers are so accustomed to typing "statute." Another time, I had a case where we used the word "face" a lot. When I finished that case, for the next few months, I had to search my writings for the word "face" because I repeatedly wrote that instead of "fact."

If the typist of the cookbook has typed "people"enough, typing "p" and "e" might trigger the physical response to type "people" regardless of context. I think it's silly to think there is anything nefarious about this.

[Japanfan]

I almost never type "statue" correctly, because my fingers are so accustomed to typing "statute." Another time, I had a case where we used the word "face" a lot. When I finished that case, for the next few months, I had to search my writings for the word "face" because I repeatedly wrote that instead of "fact."

I can understand the logic of why that it would happen, though I haven't had the same experience - though maybe I haven't been in that same type of repetitive word situation.

But you are talking about one letter, not a completely different word.

Also, you know that you make these mistakes and go back and correct them. Which would be rather important for a lawyer or a lawyer's proofreader.

If the typist of the cookbook has typed "people"enough, typing "p" and "e" might trigger the physical response to type "people" regardless of context. I think it's silly to think there is anything nefarious about this.

First of all, the typist or proofreader didn't catch it.

Second, it just seems very odd because "black pepper" appears a ton of times in cook-books, certainly much more often than the word "people" or "black people". Quite different from the situation you describe.

And the recipe would have been given to the typist. It's very possible that the error was in the original recipe and the typist copied it - typists don't think about every word they write. And then the proofreader could have missed it.

It certainly could have been intentional. Maybe it wasn't, but there are people who do stuff like that.

[Aussie Willy]

I read about this the other day. Little mistake with big cost.

[softlip]

Maybe auto-complete? Or selecting accidentally the wrong option while spell checking?

[Really]

Mistakes happen. It's crazy how people (or is that "pepper"?) are so willing to assign malicious intent so readily.

[*Jen*]

Mistakes happen. It's crazy how people (or is that "pepper"?) are so willing to assign malicious intent so readily.

ITA. I had my mother read my university thesis and go through it with a fine tooth comb to make sure there were no typos or mistakes. I was extremely tired when I finished it, and she found similar mistakes to this.

It's not that hard to see how it could have happened. Someone makes a typing error and typles peppel instead of pepper, or something similar, and the auto-correct changes it to people.

I think they're making a mountain out of a molehill...

[Reuven]

It's not that hard to see how it could have happened. Someone makes a typing error and typles peppel instead of pepper, or something similar, and the auto-correct changes it to people.

Misteaks happen.
But, I agree with Jen, blame auto-spell. I doubt there was any evil intentions.

[duane]

It's not that hard to see how it could have happened.

It isn't??? I find it difficult to find a plausible reason how it could have happened...especially since one word has a repeating letter while the other doesn't. I seriously doubt that auto-correct would change "peppel" to "people". Perhaps it would change "pepple" to "people". But I can't see someone mis-typing "pepple" for "pepper". Typos happen, but typing "le" for "er"?

I don't know what to think here. On the one hand, I think it had to have been a typo or silly mistake; OTOH, perhaps a deliberate publicity stunt? How many people will now go out and buy the misprinted books because of this publicity?

[*Jen*]

It isn't??? I find it difficult to find a plausible reason how it could have happened...especially since one word has a repeating letter while the other doesn't. I seriously doubt that auto-correct would change "peppel" to "people". Perhaps it would change "pepple" to "people". But I can't see someone mis-typing "pepple" for "pepper". Typos happen, but typing "le" for "er"?

Have you never written anything when you're tired? Have you never worked 18 hours straight in one day to finish a project, and then read back over it the next day to see it littered with mistakes such as this?

I'm guessing not, because if you had, you would have no difficulty understanding how it happened. So it wasn't a typo - it was a mistake. As evidenced in my post above, people write the wrong word every time. I see it multiple times per day on this very forum and my mother found dozens of examples in my LLM thesis which had to be corrected before it was handed in.

People make mistakes. It's what makes us human. Inferring malicious intent because you're too perfect to have made such a mistake and thus can't understand how it would happen? It's ridiculous.

Ask any academic, any lawyer, journalist or anyone else who has to write and then edit a lot of stuff. You can find some pretty ludicrious things that you don't recall writing, but if you're tired, it happens. If you're thinking about a different word or having a conversation, you often start to write it.

I don't find it difficult to find a plausible reason at all.

Misteaks happen.

Clearly. And I just demonstrated how. If you're thinking of one thing and typing another, the result can be amusing. Hungry, Reuven?

[Aaron W]

Mistakes happen. It's crazy how people (or is that "pepper"?) are so willing to assign malicious intent so readily.

I agree. I can only at the conspiracy theorists who think otherwise. I'm too lazy to do it, but I suspect we could do a search of people's posts here on FSU and find similar occurrences of mistyped words.

[genevieve]

When I'm doing a lot of writing, I type the wrong word all the time. Plus, when I type I look at the keyboard, not the screen - I usually can tell when I've made a typo and fix it mid-stream, but if what I've typed is a real word, I usually don't find it until I proofread. I can't remember specific examples, but I just did a writing/editing job at work and some of the words that ended up in the document pre-proofing had nothing to do with the subject at all. I can totally see how this happened.

OTOH, it is a pretty big failure of proofreading to not catch this before publication. Mistakes get to publication all the time (a friend used to talk about the book she read as a kid about the "two-headed boy" and how confused she was that a bigger deal wasn't made of it in the book), but this is more than just switching 2 letters and as was mentioned, the word "people" in the middle of a recipe should have caught the eye of a proofer. But ultimately I have a hard time believing this is anything but a mistake.

[Really]

Proofreaders obviously don't catch everything. If I had a dollar for every typo we've found in textbooks in our schools, I wouldn't have to teach anymore!

[Rex]

I want one of the books with the typo in it !!!

[BigB08822]

For anyone who says this couldn't have been a mistake, it must be nice to be so perfect all the time. I know that just on this message board I have made some crazy mistakes while typing. I have typed completely wrong words because I had the television going or someone talking near me. It happens to me all the time. I wish I could remember but just the other day I read one of my posts with a word that was stuck in the middle of a sentence and made NO SENSE. I couldn't even figure out what word it was supposed to be. Lucky for me no one has decided I did it on purpose, guess I am just really dumb and not as perfect as some of you.

[Matryeshka]

It isn't??? I find it difficult to find a plausible reason how it could have happened...especially since one word has a repeating letter while the other doesn't. I seriously doubt that auto-correct would change "peppel" to "people". Perhaps it would change "pepple" to "people". But I can't see someone mis-typing "pepple" for "pepper". Typos happen, but typing "le" for "er"?

I don't know what to think here. On the one hand, I think it had to have been a typo or silly mistake; OTOH, perhaps a deliberate publicity stunt? How many people will now go out and buy the misprinted books because of this publicity?

For the sake of argument, I turned auto-correct on and typed "peppel." Neither pepper nor people was what it corrected, but people came before pepper. The first word was pepped.

If it was pepple, the first word it corrected to was people.

I don't see why it's so difficult for you to believe someone would make a typing mistake like that, unless you just don't type that often. I've made all sorts of bizarre typing mistakes and have typed the wrong letter using the wrong wrong hand. Often, my mistakes are when I'm thinking about something else, like, typing "skating" instead of "skills" during Worlds.
You wouldn't believe some of the typos I've gotten for English and History papers. They have been truly

[mkats]

For anyone who says this couldn't have been a mistake, it must be nice to be so perfect all the time. I know that just on this message board I have made some crazy mistakes while typing.

Seriously! We all make mistakes. The idea of it being a publicity stunt

Hell, the other day I was so stressed out from a long day of work that I met someone and accidentally introduced myself as "Sarah". My name starts with S, but it's nowhere near Sarah.

[mmscfdcsu]

Seriously! We all make mistakes. The idea of it being a publicity stunt

Ahhhhh. It is so much fun to look for evil in others. It reminds me of the scene in Bowfinger where Eddie Murphy is ranting and raving because he counted all of the letters in a script and they somehow came out to spell KKK in his system. I couldn't find that scene on youtube, so I'll insert another that makes no sense to this post, but that I love anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKoiO...eature=related

Find evil intent as you wish.