Typo Vigilantes Get Banned From National Parks 13
Jeff Michael Deck and Benjamin Douglas Herson travel the nation removing typos from public signs. As you can imagine, nobody cared, that is until they 'fixed' a historic marker at the Grand Canyon. The pair were charged with vandalism, sentenced to a year's probation, during which they cannot enter any national park, and ordered to pay restitution. Deck, a Dartmouth graduate, told reporters he became passionate about grammar after winning junior-high spelling bees. It's a shame that you can't spell your way into a life.
Restitution (Score:2)
So did they use that money to fix it so that it is now incorrect again?
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Probably not, fines like that almost never go to actual repairs.
Even if the government does restore the sign to its incorrect original state, however, these heroes need not fear their efforts went unappreciated - I fully expect we can look forward to a wave of copycats correcting atrocious grammar wherever it may lurk. And I for one thank them for their sacrifice, for the sake of all of us.
As for the "work of art" angle - Sorry,
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If a misspelt sign constitutes a work of art -- then so does the hand-correction of it!
If they try to correct the sign, they'll be defacing a work of art!
Finally (Score:1, Funny)
Be careful what you fix (Score:4, Informative)
It's important to actually READ TFA.
They didn't just "fix" a historical marker, they vandalized an irreplaceable historical ART OBJECT -- a hand painted sign painted more than 60 years ago by the architect Mary Colter.
Idiots
Fortunately, if I read TFA correctly, they used white out... which can probably be removed.
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If it is, I'm okay with it. Assault is just against one person, and they'll most likely heal - the destruction of historic artifacts is a crime against society, an affront to all of our heritage. Much like I believe intentional arson against historic structures should be punished by life imprisonment or possibly capital punishment. Then again I'm a historian in my spare time, and I take such things quite seriously considering the number of irreplaceable items we've lost to such pointless acts of stupidit
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Handwaving away assault, and then going on about "crime against society" (please) and "an affront of all our heritage" (nonsense). What he did was vandalism, pure and simple. He did something stupid, but 1) he didn't destroy it 2) injuring someone is far worse than petty vandalism even in the name of "history".
You're a fanatic. Life is going to go on just fine for everyone over a minute and stupid change to some mostly unimportant sign anyway, and guess what? Nobody really is hurt.
"Affront of all our he
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60 Years! Noo! Nobody was alive then!
Site (Score:2)
A cached version is better: http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:_bZiVdfV1PwJ:jeffdeck.com/teal/about.html [google.com]
Here is a search (make sure to look at the cached versions): http://www.google.com/search?q=site:jeffdeck.com+Typo+Eradication+Advancement+League [google.com]
They should be honored (Score:2)