Imagine hosting a gathering of a representative from each of the following occupations: small appliance repairer, box store cashier, telephone exchange operator, travel agent, video rental clerk, 35 mm Kodachrome processor, Boeing 747-400 navigator and a full-time local newspaper spelling and grammar proofer.
You’d need only one chair.
I remember meeting a little old lady in 1995. When I asked what career she once had, she replied, “I was a full-time copy checker for the Standard-Freeholder. My job was to ensure that no spelling error or faulty grammar was published. It was up to the editor of the paper to ensure no factual errors or anything libellous was published in our news or opinion pieces. Technology and cost-cutting eliminated my position. I got a job as a role-playing farmer’s wife at Upper Canada Village.”
If you read last week’s DWW about people having opposite tastes in food, travel and relations between countries, you would have noticed a number of grammatical and spelling errors. I didn’t, because my usual Sunday to finalize that column was completely pre-empted by a flying adventure. To meet my deadline, it had to be E-mailed before Juliet, my resident medical consultant, chef and proofer was given her usual opportunity to check it out for errors.
Here’s your challenge: send an E-mail to me (nuthilltoo@gmail.com) that points out the errors. Deadline is September 31. Best submission received gets a cup of Tim’s (medium size) and any doughnut of your choice.
There! I’ve dealt with that matter. Now I’ll briefly describe the event that changed my day. An unusual aircraft flew over our home, which is less than 15-minutes away from the Upper Canada Village airstrip. Away I went to check it out. It was a two-place AutoGyro, C-GNHP, not one of the 358 different types of aircraft I have flown in.
While I was striking up a conversation with the pilot, another unusual aircraft, a Europa Classic, C-GNPZ, joined us. After a brief discussion, the AutoGyro pilot agreed to fly me to the Iroquois airstrip. From there, the Europa pilot flew me to their home base, Carp Airport. Those aircraft became the 359th and 360th different types I had flown in. I’m now looking for my 361st…
