Spell Check on Drugs

Every day, I use software that corrects my spelling, or at least suggests spellings to me: my iPhone, QuarkXpress, InDesign, Firefox, Safari.

I'm grateful for all the times I've been magically absolved from typos -- particularly the errant article "teh" that seems be hardwired between my brain and fingers. But it's much more noticeable if spell check tries to correct my spelling when it's not necessary.

I've been saving up some of the funnier examples, and on this snowy night in Minnesota, I think it's finally time to share them:

• Google = googly
• .com = coma
• Gotv (get out the vote, typed with incorrect capitalization on my iPhone) = goth
• Obama = mamba or Alabama (at least it didn't suggest Osama)
• Org (I was typing an abbreviation for organization) = orgy
• Sustainability = sustainable (that's not funny on the face of it, but can you believe that the dictionary didn't know sustainability by now?)
• Mentoring = metering
• UNFI (the acronym of the largest natural foods distribution company, United Natural Food, Inc.) = unfit

Thank goodness for the spell checker. As the anonymous poem says:

As soon as a mist ache is maid it nose bee fore two long,
And eye can put the error rite; its rare lea ever wrong.