Charming 3 bed, 2 bath; pastries included
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The California page in Thursday’s LATExtra section featured an article about a 77-year-old homeowner fighting to save his historic Spanish-style bungalow from foreclosure.
The article, by Ruben Vives, included these colorful details:
Sitting in his living room one recent afternoon, the proud homeowner looked around him. He eyed the home’s white coved ceiling, nickel wall scones and stained-glass windows, then gazed upon the original oak wood flooring. It was installed the same year he was born.
That second sentence caught the eye of reader Beryl Arbit of Encino, who wrote:
‘Spell check is not your friend. If it were, it would stop you from printing that Jim Schneider has nickel scones on his wall (scones being biscuit-like pastries popular in Britain). Rather, it would cause you to print that Mr. Schneider has sconces on his wall (sconces being wall-mounted lighting fixtures).’
To quote the subject line of Arbit’s e-mail: What a difference one letter makes.
Vives -- and editors -- do know the difference between a lighting fixture and a breakfast pastry. But that one pesky letter is easy to overlook when your brain knows what the word is supposed to be. And as Arbit points out, spell check doesn’t help in this case.
Vives poked fun at the typo too: ‘If Mr. Schneider did have scones and not sconces, wouldn’t that make the house sweeter and a better reason to save it?’
Twitter: @LATreadersrep