Proof-Reading Redux

I got asked a while back about my "obsession" with typos and so on. Well, sometimes typos have expensive consequences: here are a few examples at Mental Floss. I have a memory, but cannot run it down, of legal papers settling a dispute that were filed and finalized with a typo that reduced a very large award by 90%, as well.

It's also true that I have a strong professional interest in accuracy. I really don't want some piece of expensive equipment damaged or a software installation hosed because I screwed up in a document.

Here's a comparatively minor example from the Times, an error in the obit for trainer Allen Jerkens:

Although known to fans as the Giant Killer, Mr. Jerkens, not given to hyperbole, preferred the more simple tag Chief, as he was called by track insiders. His horses won more than 3,800 races and garnered nearly $1.3 million in purses.

So I would hope that those numbers would raise the eyebrows of anyone who knows something about horse racing: 1.3 million divided by 3,800 = $342 and change. That won't keep a racehorse in oats and a barn for a week, and I sent email to the author alerting him to the issue. It's now been corrected, and Jerkens's horses' correct winnings are actually around $104 million, a much more impressive number.

I give the Times a break on this kind of thing; it is impossible to be 100% accurate in a fast-paced production environment where you publish a small book's worth of material on a daily basis. It's harder to give breaks to, for example, an opera company whose professionally written and produced program notes identify Liu, the seconda donna in Turandot, as a mezzo-soprano role.*

Updated: I fixed a typo.
Update 2: I added some snark.

* I'm looking at you, San Francisco Opera. This was a couple of bring-ups ago.

Proofreaders Wanted, at Several Musical Organizations

No, this is not a want ad. It's a plea for sanity.

• San Francisco Opera's E-Opera email newsletters have twice referred to Simon Boccanegra as "highly prized." It's pretty clear, from context, that they mean highly-praised.
• "Gut grabbing vocal heft" - is that the best possible description of Dmiti Hvorostovsky's voice?
• Seattle Opera's web site currently refers to operas being performed in January through May, 2009, as the "Spring 2008" operas, here and here. Oops! After I clicked a link in email I received from Seattle, I thought I'd somehow missed a program I would like to see.
• The page for Erwartung and Bluebeard's Castle says "By Bela Bartok" at the top of the page. Scroll down and you do find Arnold Schoenberg's name, but why should you have to scroll?
• Yes, I did email the Seattle Opera webmaster about those little gaffes.
• Printed matter from the San Francisco Symphony is unclear on how to style one of Schubert's symphonies. I've ranted about this before: that rather long symphony is not The Great Symphony. It is the Symphony No. 9, "Great C Major," or "Great" C Major. In context, it probably should have been styled The Great C Major Symphony, but two mailings from the SFS are wrong in two different ways! The idea is to distinguish it from the "Little" C major symphony, a shorter work from the composer's youth.
• Lastly, I got a beautiful printed brochure in the mail last week from one of the Bay Area's major concert presenters. The type is largely 6 point sans serif white on black or mauve backgrounds. Please, have pity on those of us who never had 20/20 vision to start with.