Spellwrecker

Oh, but this is amusing...

June 2nd, 2008 MIDDLETOWN, Pa. -- A computer spell-checker run amok christened several Pennsylvania high school students with new — and in some cases unflattering — last names.

Middletown Area High School's yearbook listed Max Zupanovic as "Max Supernova," Kathy Carbaugh as "Kathy Airbag" and Alessandra Ippolito as "Alexandria Impolite," just to name a few.

"It was kind of funny, but kind of rude at the same time," Ippolito said.

The mistakes were found on four of the yearbook's 176 pages, co-editor Amanda Gummo said.

Ed Patrick of Taylor Publishing, which printed the book, said his company is responsible for the errors and will provide free stickers printed with the correct names.

"It happens all the time, every year," Patrick said. "Look at any yearbook in the country."

This reminds us of our years as a college newspaper editor. The first Gulf War was underway, and our primitive spellchecker didn't know what to make of a certain Iraqi dictator's name.

Sodomy hussy? it suggested.

And that is when we learned not to take all of the recommendations our word-processing software gave us. Perhaps this printer has learned the same lesson.