Has a misspelled word so flummoxed you that you never forgot the episode? [Story ahead!]?
Asked by
ibstubro (
18804
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May 19th, 2015
When I was in my 20’s, I was a buffet cook at a hotel. We had a buffet runner that said “Waldo” all the time. I asked who or what Waldo was, and didn’t understand the answer. After several attempts, he finally ‘dumbed it down’ for me. It sounded like “Walled, dogs.” Turns out “Wild dogs!” was an all purpose affirmative in his set, much like ‘Cool’.
But I digress.
Anyway, Joe (the buffet runner’s name) would frequently help put leftovers away at the end of the day. Many of the containers were opaque, and we’d mark on the what was inside. “Slace” flummoxed me. Now, in a former life I was a bright English major – I should be able to figure this out. Or not. I finally broke down and asked him what was in a “Slace” container. “Sauce!” he says. Okaaay. I don’t remember my response. Maybe that his writing could be better?
I wish I could remember Joe’s last name. He was a good kid and a hard worker, but illiterate and the wrong side of the tracks was likely a day’s walk.
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7 Answers
There’s a door at my school that says “All visitor’s must use the other entrance.”
When I worked at a hotel, a maid would always spell towel as tawel, queen as quin, and laundry as landry. I also remember how “flummoxed” one of the non-English-native speakers at the front desk taking reservations was when I explained how “win” was spelt “Nguyen”.
Not really, but I am used to dealing with small children, mentally handicapped people, and immigrants, so I have a bit more tolerance for that sort of stuff.
@dxs Sure it’s not Hnuyhn? On my second boat, I was in the same division with a Hnuyhn, a Nguyen, and a Winn.
I love browsing Craigslist for the best of illiteracy. My favorite a couple years ago in a farm&garden post… ” Winter is a pond us.” lol
We are selling some in ground ponds here at the ranch right now and I saw an add yesterday for a pond for sale ” No leeks great for fisk. :
@jerv There are so many nguays ways to spell it and even pronounce it, that I wouldn’t doubt it could be. What remember happening was I took the reservation from the phone, they spelt their last name out to me, and then I wrote it down on the reservation board. Weeks later when the family came in, he couldn’t find “win” on the board until I pointed to “Nguyen”. And even then he still didn’t believe me haha.
That’s funny, because “sauce” was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw “slace.” In his head he may actually hear “slace” when people say “sauce.”
Oh, I feel a new question coming on!
My hearing of late has been to the point where I usually have closed captioning on the TV so I don’t need the volume up to the point of distracting other folks in the house. I am simply amazed at the captioners’ illiteracy unless it is some sort of auto-spell-check!
It’s usually about 98% or more accurate during scripted shows, but during non-scripted programs, such as news and weather, I sometimes have to laugh out loud.
Example: a news report, the reporter’s words were: ”...some sort of warrant was being served…”
Caption: ”...some sored of warrant was being served…”
I wish they were required to caption with the same accuracy as a court reporter.
Yeah, I’ve seen that, @Yetanotheruser. I suspect that it is a computer “hearing” the words, then translating them literally. “Sorta” could easily sound like a “sored.”
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