Perhaps it speaks volumes that typos are an exciting moment in my life, but nonetheless, I have just made one of my “Top 5 Online Typo Discoveries” ever. First, see if you can spot it, then read why it makes the top 5 below…
Surely you found it. Otherwise, order cable, start watching SportsCenter, then re-read 'til you feel like an idiot.
Reasons why this typo is big:
1. Resource failure. Yahoo is the most-visited site on the internet, the number one homepage in the world, and a publicly traded company on the NYSE. Hire a goddamn editor. Joal Ryan obviously can't handle things on his own. In fact, are you sure it's not “Joel”? I wouldn't doubt it.
2. Placement. First, this article is linked from Yahoo's frontpage news box, some people's only source of contact with the outside world. Second, the typo occurs in the first paragraph, some people's limit for patience with any article on the internet (side note: grammar standards are moving away from capitalizing the word “internet,” because, as Forrest Gump once said, “It's a household name”). Please, if you're going to make mistakes, hide them from 1 in 1.5 Americans.
3. Emphasis. In any sentence, an acronym is bound to stand out the most. Not only does this draw attention to the typo, but it literally creates more problems since the meaning of the acronym itself breaks down when the letters are misarranged (?). EPSN: Erroneous Placement Spells Nothing.
4. Blaring idiocy. Look, I wasn't even sure what ESPN stood for before looking it up just now, but my god, it's impossible not to know what letters go in which order.
Go stretch your fingers and try again, “Joal.” I've got my eye on you.