A little over a month after the NYT misspelled the book's title, the Eats, Shoots & Leaves Curse has struck again.

After leaving out a colon in the headline, the press release for Literally, the Best Language Book Ever: Annoying Words and Abused Phrases You Should Never Use Again begins with the observation that "Penguin Group (USA) created a sensation over punctuation with the release of Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynn Truss..."

That would be Lynne Truss, actually. With apologies to Mighty Red Pen, here's a screenshot of the error:



As Word Wise so rightly observed: "you can no longer assume traditional spellings of names."

Check names and dates, people — this is basic stuff. Always check.

(Editosphere veterans will recognize the Eats, Shoots & Leaves Curse as a meta-manifestation of McKean's Law: "Any correction of the speech or writing of others will contain at least one grammatical, spelling, or typographical error." No one is exempt.)

Labels: editing, grammar politics