The Power of Proofreading

Since I work in downtown Chicago, I often take the opportunity on my lunch breaks to walk around and take pictures of the world-famous architecture around me. One of my most frequent subjects is the Chicago Theatre, long one of the greatest movie palaces in the world, now a live-performance venue that often hosts big-name music and comedy acts.

Yesterday, I wandered over there to take a picture of the marquee featuring the Beach Boys, who will be playing there Monday the 21st and Tuesday the 22nd. Something wasn't quite right, though: I checked online to be sure the show hadn't move due to the NATO Summit (which will clog streets here over the weekend and into Monday). Nope: According to both the theater's website and the email blast they sent out later Wednesday afternoon, the first Beach Boys show is indeed still on for Monday the 21st.

This is an important thing for me to know--I have a ticket for that Monday show.

When I passed the Chicago Theatre this morning, the marquee was still wrong, so I posted a comment on their Facebook page: "The marquee says the Beach Boys are playing the Chicago on May 20 & 22--it should be May 21 & 22. Anybody got a spare '1' for the marquee?" Shortly thereafter, they commented back "We found '1'!"

At lunchtime today, I wandered over to the Chicago marquee again. This is what I saw.

The Importance of Proofreading: Of Natinal Importance

The baseball team that plays in our nation's capital, Washington D.C., has a fairly bland name--the Nationals. Not as storied as the Yankees or Red Sox, not as festive as the Brewers, not as misery-ridden as the Cubs. Just kinda...there. Serviceable, but not much else.

Still, that's not reason to misspell the name. Yet, that's what Majestic Athletic, which provides the uniforms to the team, did on the jerseys for Adam Dunn and Ryan Zimmerman, dropping the "o" in "Nationals."

Granted, the "o" lands just on the other side of where the jersey buttons up--just as, as one reader pointed out regarding the misspelled Wolves uniform art, the missing "l" could be hiding in the fold of the jersey--so when the player is wearing the jersey, the typo isn't nearly as obvious.

One assumes, however, that someone at Majestic Athletic takes at least a glance at their product before shipping it off to be viewed by thousands of baseball fans all over the country, well before any human being has donned the uniform.

But we all know what happens when one assumes, don't we?

The Importance of Proofreading: Woves at the Door

On Sunday, March 22, the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves honored former player Sam Mitchell by handing out prints to the first 5,000 fans to show up for their game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, as part of the Timberwolves' 20th anniversary celebration.

It's a lovely print, except...does that say "Woves" on his jersey? Who, exactly, are the "Woves"?