Malapropism of the day

Subject: Malapropism of the day
From: Esther Wheeler <esther -at- AZURE-TECH -dot- COM>
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 12:35:31 -0500

Gang -

OK, it's not Friday, but this true incident may provide a smidgen
of evidence as to why we tech writing folks can be useful.

One bit of background. My company sells network analyzers:
the software program that runs on a PC card and the card
itself. Trust me, it's all very rectangular.

One of our support guys whooshed up to my doorway this
morning and said:

"YOU'D know -- how do you spell conical?"

I spelled it.

"Is that the way it's spelled in the manual?"

"I don't think it's in the manual, Tom. What's conical about the
product?"

"It must be there, that's the way the decodes come off of the wire."

"Really, I don't think I ... Wait a sec, do you mean canonical order?"

"Oh, yeah, I might, how do you spell that?"

(But then, maybe he really meant _comical_.)

- Esther


Esther Wheeler (esther -at- azure-tech -dot- com)
GN Nettest / Azure Operation

http://www.documentation.com/, or http://www.dejanews.com/



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