Word Wednesday: The Moral of the Story

“Hey Joe, Have you got a minute? I’ve been looking at our budget, and I think I’ve found a way to save us some wasted bucks.”
“Oh, yeah? What’ve you found, Bob?”
“Well, see this figure here?”
“Yeah.”
“That, Joe, is how much we pay the guy who we hired to proofread the docs for us.”
“Holy cow! That guy sure charges a hefty fee!”
“That’s what I thought. And then I got to thinking. We’re all educated folks in this office …”
“Right.”
“… And our word processing software comes with a spell check function. So really, hiring out for ‘proofreading’ isn’t necessary…”
“Genius, Bob! Get right on it. You know, the taxpayers will thank you for saving them so much money. That kind of initiative will help you go far, buddy-boy.”
“Thanks, Joe.”

Typo Will Cost Michigan County $40,000
(10/10/06 - GRAND HAVEN, MI) - Ottawa County will pay about $40,000 to correct an embarrassing typo on its Nov. 7 election ballot: The "L" was left out of "public."

Five or six people in [the county Clerk's] office had proofread the ballot, but it was an election clerk who found the mistake early last week.

(I am not making this up.)