Writer's Workshop: A Spellcheck Disaster

My colleague, Myron, was laughing as he came into my office and handed me a piece of paper.

"What's this?" I asked.

"Just read it," he chuckled.

I obliged, and started reading the email I had just sent to him a few minutes ago.

It began, "Moron..." and was signed, "Christ."

I looked up at Myron in horror. And he laughed and said, "I know I'm not always the brightest, but that's a little harsh isn't it?"

Oh. Crap.

My computer was set to automatically spellcheck all outgoing email. It was a feature I hated because I can check my own spelling, thank you very much Microsoft. But I had never bothered to take the time to disable it. Instead I would just hit the "Ignore" button over and over.

Except that day I was talking to someone else as the spellcheck ran, and apparently I hit the "Accept" button over and over.

So "Myron" became "Moron," and "Christy" became "Christ." And a lot of what was in between became unintelligible.

Thank heavens "Moron" had a sense of humor and it wasn't an important email to someone outside my company.

After a very red-faced mea culpa I spent the rest of the afternoon figuring out how to disable the auto spellcheck feature.

And I've used spellcheck very cautiously ever since.

This post inspired by Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop.

2.) Tell about a time you accidentally “replied all” or sent an email to the wrong person by mistake.

© Trippin' Mama 2011