I have a Blackberry device that I am not completely thrilled with. It’s clunky and not intuitive like an IPhone, which I would rather have. In fact, the regular message on all my Blackberry emails is “I have a Verizon Blackberry, but I would rather have an IPhone.”
While the folks at Verizon were not too happy about that, it’s my phone and I will send out the message that I want.
Anyway, the email function on the Blackberry has this spelling correction feature — Presumptive Spelling. When generating a text or email message, I often use abbreviations. The Presumptive Spelling function “thinks” that I am misspelling certain words and will automatically change the words to what it thinks it should be.
The other day I get an email from a local Democrat in Flemington, and she [let’s go with a generic name of “Shirley”] asks me the following question:
“My husband and I were appalled to find out that State Senators and Assemblymen can still practice as lawyers when they get elected. Can Chris Christie still be a lawyer when he becomes governor? We’d thought you might know.”
So, I answered her on my Blackberry:
Shirley,
“When he becomes Governor, Christie will still be atty.” [I abbreviated ‘attorney’ as ‘atty’.]
Her answer to me seemed odd, at the time: “Not funny. Stop the jokes.”
Upon further investigation, I made a discovery.
The only thing is the Presumptive Spelling function ‘corrected’ the ‘atty’ abbreviation for me, and unbeknownst to me, I hit SEND.
The correction produced:
“When he becomes Governor, Christie will still be fatty.”
Makes me wonder what other embarrassing ‘corrections’ lurk in the Presumptive Spelling function. Now, I need to figure how to turn it off.
