Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Durg, Durgs (for Drug, Drugs)

Today's typo is not from the "high" section of the Ballard list, but it still needs to be diligently dug out of our databases. We found four cases of Durgs in OhioLINK (one being the correctly spelled subject of the terrifically titled Goldglove Gid, the man of grit: or, Desperate Durg's desperate scheme, published in 1891). We had a bit better luck with just plain Durg, which garnered 21 hits, slightly more than half of which, however, referred to Durg District, India, or other proper names and foreign words. So, not to be a real drag here or sounding a mournful dirge or anything, but let's all try and remember to "Just Say No" to Durgs (for drugs).

(Actress Dorthy Short as Mary Lane in the 1936 propaganda film Reefer Madness, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

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