Today I affected social change.
I am an unapologetic sports fan. It doesn’t seem to jive with the nerdly side of me, but it is what it is. This morning, the Philadelphia Daily News ran an article about Phillies pitcher Roy Oswalt. The author, David Murphy, compared the grip Oswalt uses for his change-up as “Vulcan” like. You can read the article here:
The article as it appears now did NOT appear that way this morning, which prompted me to send him this email:
Mr. Murphy,
I’ve been reading your blog and your articles for some time now and have grown to enjoy them quite a bit. The few times there have been grammatical or spelling errors, I just glazed over them because, in the grand scheme of it all, it doesn’t matter. This morning however, my inner geek just had an aneurysm, and I felt the need to be an overly pedantic douche.
You wrote:
“This offseason, Oswalt began experimenting with a new grip on his changeup, switching from a classic circle-change to what is known as a “Vulcan” or “Fosh.” The grip looks a lot like how Dr. Spock might throw a changeup, the ball jammed between the middle and index fingers in a sort of live-long-and-prosper configuration."
There is an error in this paragraph that many non-Star Trek fans would make:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Spock = Dr. Spock
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spock = Mr. Spock
Now, I understand that this is extremely knit-picky and that I shouldn’t have wasted my time. Should I have gotten this email, I would have deleted it without reading it. As I stated before, I am being an overly pedantic douche. At the same time, I felt like I should bring this to your attention.
Apologies for any time you lost while reading this unnecessary trite.
Yours,
Jeff McCoog
A few hours later, I checked the article again on a whim to see if he had changed it, fully expecting nothing to have changed. Turns out that a little friendly self-deprecation and polite correction can truly affect social change.
Comments
No response!? Not even a “good catch!”?
No response, but I can safely say that it was ME who got him to change it.
From David Murphy’s twitter page:
“Wrote “Dr. Spock” instead of “Mr. Spock” in my story today. Emails from Trekkies already rolling in. Gonna be a long day."
I don’t know how to take that. I was just trying to be helpful. Could it be that the dude is a douche himself?
I know who I am and I’m damned proud of it!
this is extremely knit-picky and that you shouldn’t have wasted your time
L`Kevin said:this is extremely knit-picky and that you shouldn’t have wasted your time
One wonders why you’d even muster the energy to leave a comment, Kev.
It’s nit-picky unless you’re frogging your sweater.
And yeah, that guy probably is a douche.
What does this “frogging your sweater” mean? Is this some hip internet lingo? I have never heard of such a phrase!
First I’d heard of it. Google is your friend:
http://anton.lr2.com/2006/01/03/how-to-recycle-a-sweater/
Get it? Cause it’s like knitting? And you pick stitches?
haha It’s knitting jargon. When you screw something up and have to unravel what you’ve knitted, it’s “frogging”
The google ads on the side are KILLING ME on this post. Three for Phillies stuff, and one for “Star Trek apartment.” WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?
Travis said:Start the video at about 3:25
Thank you Travis. This summed it up perfectly.
i love you, jeff.