Stuff White People Like
By Aaron • Sep 13th, 2008 • Category: General SodAn example of site’s content (seriously, this is worth the five minutes it’ll take to read):
Two white people from the Somerville, MA created an organization called “TEAL: Typo Eradication Advancement League,” and vowed to travel across the country fixing typos. This is especially interesting since every other time two late 20s white males have traveled across the country it has been to visit all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums.
All was well until the two men defaced a hand painted sign in Grand Canyon National Park. They were caught, arrested, fined, and banned from National Parks for one year.
While white people have little trouble paying fines of $3,000, the ban from public parks for one full year is considered especially harsh considering white people’s need for camping and other outdoor activities.
Questions for discussion:
1. When there is a typo on a vintage sign, what is more important: Grammar or character?
2. Once all typos have been corrected, what will be the next cause for white people to solve?
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Jobs to enable you to live in Harlem
According to the article, the following jobs will allow you to live in Harlem. Amazingly all are Stuff White People Like:
*Lawyer
*Artist
*School Teacher (won lottery)
*Non-Profit Organization
Atlantic Monthly link regarding the below blog, “Stuff White People Like”: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200810/editors-choice
And the actual Stuff White People Like blog: http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/
Enjoy.
Aaron is special.
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I read about this on the news a little while back. My first thought was, “do these two boneheads have nothing better to do with their lives?” Apparently not. As for correcting vintage signs that have errors…I think people should just leave them alone and move along. If the sign has been that way for centuries, why fix it? Personally, I think they should have been banned for life. Just my two cents. By the way, when will someone correct the title to the tv show, America’s Got Talent. Yikes - that makes me cringe.
There’s a fine line between fixing an error, and outright vandalism. Even though I support proper spelling, you don’t really have to mess with signs. It’s a lot smarter just to say “This needs to be corrected to XYZ.”
Still an interesting story though, banned from national parks for a year isn’t that big a deal though, I haven’t been to any in… uh…
I forget.
I must say that is a bit extreme. Typos can be a bit of an annoyance but it’s just down right compulsive to go around correcting them all over the place. I guess there could be worse things to go to jail over.
Remember to read Stuff White People Like the same way one would read Flaubert, or Ambrose Bierce. A friend of mine had a good remedy: just put “sic” on a sign, and pound it into the ground next to it.