Future copywriter in the making
I love the story about the kid who found the error at the Smithsonian Institute. Seems that a sign on a display at the National Museum of Natural History referred to the “Precambrian era.”
According to the story by The Association Press, 11-year-old Kenton Stufflebeam reported the error he saw to the front desk on a comment card. He received a letter from the museum:
“The Precambrian is a dimensionless unit of time, which embraces all the time between the origin of Earth and the beginning of the Cambrian Period of geologic time,” the letter says.
The solution to the problem would not involve advanced science but rather simply painting over the word “era,” the note says.
Now that’s a great kid…. what a catch! He has all the signs of being an adorably anal copywriter who can spot an inconsistent comma a mile away. To tell the full story shows his full capabilities: when the Smithsonian people sent the letter, they addressed it to Kenton Slufflebeam from Alleghany, not his town of Allegan, Michigan.
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Felicia Pickering on 04 Apr 2008 at 2:48 pm #
Please note, it is Smithsonian Institution, not Smithsonian Institute … since we are on the subject of correcting errors. This is a very common one, but easily caught if you go to the Smithsonian website.
Beth on 04 Apr 2008 at 2:55 pm #
Ha! Hilarious! I guess I need Kenton Stufflebeam here helping me as well.
Here’s to public errors, eh, Kenton?
Thanks, Felicia. Great point.