A Quick Spelling Lesson

We were reading Salon yesterday when we noticed a spelling error that gave an interview with Lemony Snicket some unintentional hilarity:

Says Daniel Handler (Snicket's real name):

"If you're Jewish, you find the pope inherently funny. I often forget that there are a great number of people who take him seriously, rather than just thinking of him as some whacky clown. I actually ended up changing some of the text in the book, not because of the sensibility, but because it was interesting watching there be a new pope. I remember watching when his car went on e-Bay -- the new pope's old car. It was just funny to think how fundamentally his life was going to change. He'd never get to decide what to wear ever again. He can't just say, "Today, I'm going to be in jeans!"

"Whacky" is, in some quarters, an acceptable spelling for "wacky." But we don't approve of spelling it with the "whack," because to whack is to hit. Is the pope a hitting clown? We may no longer be Catholic, but we think not.

Likewise, the word crummy -- which means of little value or miserable -- should not be spelled with a b. "Crumby" describes your sheets after someone (the pope?) has eaten crackers in bed. And this makes us whacky, so don't do it.