I misspelled the word “embarrassing” in the phrase “embarrassing typos” in my book, which was largely about how not to make embarrassing typos. Embarrassing typo inception.
Someone was posting about eating the rich, and I replied that it would be more efficient to keep them alive while continually harvesting their organs and tissues, except I replied to the wrong post, so it looked like I was saying that in response to a post about AN AMERICAN TAIL: FIEVAL GOES WEST
No typo story, but I once accidentally sent a text to a friend at work complaining about someone else being a bitch….very quickly realized that I actually sent it TO the person I was complaining about. Ope.
My worst was as a business news reporter and typed a stock had dropped by 10 per cent when it was .10 per cent. The market reacted and so did my publisher : )
Once used spell check on a front page headline for a print newspaper in the Bay Area (never use spell check on headlines or names, fyi) & accidentally hit 'accept' to auto-change Saddam Hussein to "Sadism Hussies". 🤗
Even worse is that it was 2003, & it was when he had been captured, so the headline was MASSIVE.
I was a baby copy editor & part of my soul died when the News Editor came roaring into the newsroom, screaming "Who the fuck did this?!" while holding up the front page. 🤣
One time I was focused on putting together a point-by-point response to an email and...somehow...that translated to writing a reply to my grad supervisor starting off with "Dear Amanda" (spoiler: not his name). He graciously never mentioned it, lol.
My good friend was teaching Spanish at a stuffy private school and the word was “generalmente”. The kid said “Genitalmente” and my friend had to leave the room, fearing she couldn’t keep it together.
I was sending a message to my friend who had just announced her pregnancy. I wanted to send a congratulatory gif but instead clicked on the one with a golfer that said "Hole in One". I was so embarrassed. Luckily it was a really good friend and she just laughed.
In Dutch a common sign off is "met vriendelijke groeten," meaning "with friendly greetings." I have wished people more times than I care to admit "met vriendelike groenten," which is "with friendly vegetables"
Asked my Instacart shopper to pick up a few things for dinner including rotisserie children.
Thankfully she advised they were out and she substituted with a chicken.
I once sent a text with "I loved you" instead of "I love you." 💀 Not a typo, but there was another time where someone was telling me about a cancer scare, and I accidentally hit the quick react button and sent a giant thumbs up emoji. They had the chat open and saw it immediately.
In San Jose CA connected Cisco 7000 in Chicago. Type debug all not undebug all. The debug commands overwhelm the router cpu. All communications stop. Had local Chicago tech go power cycle the router. This was 1992 and for about 2 hours we had no access to any of our 50+ sites in Chicago.
I was once texting a customer and told them we were out of organic apples. My device autocorrected that to “orgasmic apples” and I did not realize it until after I’d hit send.
Mine was a mispronunciation many years ago. Our teacher had us take turns reading aloud from an excerpt, which I already loathed. Given that we were reading about the Bubonic Plague, my sentence included the word “buboes.” I pronounced it “boobies” in front of my prepubescent classmates.
like the time "predictive" text typed "Untied" States of America instead of "United" States of America all over my CV. It was funny then, it's not funny now.
Teeter became titties by omission of autocorrect, it changed on purpose thinking that’s what I meant. Thankfully it was to a good humoured colleague, however, I have never been able to use that word without being reminded of the incident.
Not mine, but a colleague once managed to send a report containing the phrase "a device resembling a bride" around the entire organisation. Apparently he was aiming for "bribe"...
Way back when I was a Medical Assistant, I was reading through a progress note, and the doctor had written, “pussy drainage” instead of “purulent” or puss-y lol
As a high-schooler, geology class, I wrote "volcanic erection" instead of "eruption". In an assignment. That the teacher read. Surprisingly enough, I got an A.
English teacher in France here, I once sent a text message to a colleague "Sex you demain" ("tomorrow") instead of "See you demain". She replied "If you want, but not sure we'll have time, as we need to prepare the oral comprehension for grade 12". Still best friends today. @hlngdi.bsky.social
Oh I can give you a huge list of embarrassing mistakes I've made. Though you might prefer to hear about mistakes that high-status people make. I'm basically nobody important.
One of my former bosses emailed me about the Christmas cookies she was making. I reminded her to leave some out for satan. Simple mistake that changed the whole vibe
Not a typo, but as a horribly precocious child of about 10 I wanted to show off a fancy new phrase for prison I'd heard, during dinner at my grandma's. My use of the phrase 'penile servitude' produced a startling and extremely awkward pause in the conversation I didn't understand until years later..
Published an article in a classified daily decades ago and the facing page biography of an important foreign official listed an earlier position as Minister of Pubic Works. Error was made by the publication's editorial staff. I checked my draft to make sure it wasn't mine.
I know an author personally whose book was actually published, printed and sold with “pubic” instead of “public.” I think the error was within the first 20 pages. I emailed him when I saw it. 😳
It used to be when editing the config on a Cisco switch when you were ready to save you typed "write mem" to write your config to startup memory so if the switch lost power it would reload with your new config. I always failed saving on the first try because "write meme" every time.
Used to work in journalism.
I've seen "pubic hearing" in draft copy a few times.
Saw a headline that went to press, "Witnesses shocked as bylaw officers get off."
Major daily I used to work for - as the managing editor. Copy editor goofed, went to print with "Council approves nuclear power pants."
These are hilarious. As a former newspaper reporter who covered an ungodly amount of public meetings, I’m sure that slipped into print at least once. But the nuclear power pants is just *chef’s kiss*.
Had a fairly ... unworldly .... reporter do a basic puff piece on a breast cancer fundraiser. Pink ribbon theme.
He submitted a headline, "Fundraiser is in the pink."
Explaining why I rejected it was ... interesting.
"Have you ever heard of 'urbandictionary.com?' I said."
About fifteen seconds later there was an "OoOOoOooooh...." from his cubicle.
And ten second later, the somewhat ... prudish ... senior reporter also goes, "Oh, my...."
I wrote a grant application where I said that I am going to examine groins (instead of groynes - I am artificial habitats and fish ecologist). So you know 🤣
Whenever someone has a loved one pass away and I start typing, "I'm so sorry..." my phone tries to auto correct it to, "I'm so dirty..." luckily, I've managed to catch it every time. but I'm just waiting for the day I'm moving too fast and don't!
Hahaha, I had a very similar problem in a consult letter dictated by a resident. “Should you have any questions, please do not contact Dr. Pickett’s office.”
Meant to be “do not hesitate to contact”, of course! 😂🤦🏼♀️😬
I once texted my mom that her antique, hand-made, silk and pearl Christmas ornaments were up in my anus, and she was welcome to go up and get them herself. ... attic. They were in my attic.
Not my typo. My former boss once sent a multi-office email referring to a dubious statement as "horse hockey" [a favorite Colonel Potter-ism on M.A.S.H.]. Except he spelled it "hore hockey." The individual who was the main recipient of the email thought he was calling her a whore. Drama ensued.
For someone looking for coverage for their reference desk shift one day: "Don't worry, I'll take your shit for you". to about 50% of the library's staff.
I was an ad and page designer for a small town daily newspaper. The sales team more or less refused to proof ads and left it up to us to run spellcheck.
That's how the town suddenly had a "Pubic Library."
THRICE in my thesis ‘sexual organs’ autocorrected to ‘sexual oranges’. It was completely random- it somehow didn’t correct any other instances, and I still laugh about it.
I received a radiology report that said I had "paratesticular osteopenia." This was surprising for many reasons, starting with the fact that it was a hand x-ray. (They meant "periarticular osteopenia.") I told my mother, and she would randomly ask how my hand testicles were doing and then cackle.
I texted a customer to see if his restaurant needed a keg of beer for the coming week’s order. This customer happened to be missing his right leg above the knee. Keg was autocorrected to leg.
Used to be a small town newspaper editor and once had a typo in a wedding announcement about a military couple starting their married life at Fort Rucker, Alabama. I'll let you figure out for yourself what the typo was.
Had a boss send an email discussing shift issues. In the subject line. I needn't elaborate. This went into the archived distribution, so it hung around for a couple of years, at least.
When I was 7 or so, I excitedly told my friend's dad about how octopi have eight testicles. I did not realize until days later. I still haven't forgotten 😆
My full year Biophysics research project "The Effects of Cryotherapy on the Impact Strength of Bone" (inspired by Dave Dravecky (go ⚾!)) for which I had used bovine leg bone, I called it femer. Every single time.
TBH, Med School and 2 residencies later and I'm still never sure if it's ER or UR.
“Good morning, babe”
In a work email from me (SpEd teacher) to one of our school psychologists. I have no idea why my phone did that..I’ve never once called anyone “babe”!
Oh dear! So embarrassing! I worked for Office of Emergency Services. Sent an email to my BOSS saying "It's about that time to renew our CPR certs" What it auto populated to was "It's about tittie time..." Oh. My. God.
Comments
I was a baby copy editor & part of my soul died when the News Editor came roaring into the newsroom, screaming "Who the fuck did this?!" while holding up the front page. 🤣
And, not my typo, but a colleague once sent an email to a group of students to explain a delay and apologise 'for any incontinence caused'
My good friend was teaching Spanish at a stuffy private school and the word was “generalmente”. The kid said “Genitalmente” and my friend had to leave the room, fearing she couldn’t keep it together.
Can you please bring home sex candles.
Of course I meant six candles.
Thankfully she advised they were out and she substituted with a chicken.
Are you in the office or WTF?
Meant WFH - Working From Home
(They got a +, as I recall ...)
Emailed Mr. Weir as Mr. Weird more than one.
Put this in the re: line of an email to the same person more than once: ‘The Estate of Christ Harrison’ - instead of Chris.
I've seen "pubic hearing" in draft copy a few times.
Saw a headline that went to press, "Witnesses shocked as bylaw officers get off."
Major daily I used to work for - as the managing editor. Copy editor goofed, went to print with "Council approves nuclear power pants."
Had a fairly ... unworldly .... reporter do a basic puff piece on a breast cancer fundraiser. Pink ribbon theme.
He submitted a headline, "Fundraiser is in the pink."
Explaining why I rejected it was ... interesting.
About fifteen seconds later there was an "OoOOoOooooh...." from his cubicle.
And ten second later, the somewhat ... prudish ... senior reporter also goes, "Oh, my...."
i have never double texted so fast
From speaking: ‘obituary.’
"If you have any questions please do hesitate to contact me"
I sent that to 500 people... not my finest moment.
Meant to be “do not hesitate to contact”, of course! 😂🤦🏼♀️😬
(at least it’s your wife, could be your granny!!)
“You go tit” (You got it)
Look at what letter “Y” is next to on the keyboard. I think you get the idea. Worst typo ever, and in all caps too
** It was an oversight by many and, to be fair, who wants dirty public spaces?
That's how the town suddenly had a "Pubic Library."
We still tease him about that faux pas to this day.
Best regards
I was using voice to text so what I got was, "we need to discuss urine planning."
TBH, Med School and 2 residencies later and I'm still never sure if it's ER or UR.
(BTW, that's excellent, I shall try to use it and stop looking it up every time.)
In a work email from me (SpEd teacher) to one of our school psychologists. I have no idea why my phone did that..I’ve never once called anyone “babe”!