I took today off from work because I’ve got some guys here working on my house. I happened to get sucked into the Discovery Channel program How It’s Made for a little bit. I’m a curious sort, so this program tends to draw me in quite handily. I hit the program guide on my satellite remote and immediately spotted an easy typo: aluminium. That’s a misspelling to us Americans, but in many other places it’s the proper spelling of good ol’ element #13.  In any case, it caught my eye.

It’s a disorder. Really. I often spot typos in a flash, many times in my peripheral vision. Last night when Jay Leno was doing funny newspaper clippings, I spotted a typo in something that was up for two seconds or so and wasn’t related to the joke. The National Atomic Museum I posted about earlier? I spotted typos on the placards there right away. I even took a picture of one, because I’m a nerd:

I’m not saying I don’t make the occasional typo, or otherwise plant my foot firmly in my mouth. On the rare occasion when I go back to proofread my work, I tend to spot most of those as well. But it is an odd “gift” to possess, and can cause one to find one’s self nitpicking the Discovery Channel.