Frank Ramblings

This is going to seem stupid to many of you, but here goes anyway. When it comes to spelling and grammar, I have a pretty serious case of O.C.D. I’m not very forgiving of those errors, mostly because spelling and grammar come very naturally to me. I know if a sentence is grammatically correct or if a word is spelled properly just by reading or hearing it. It usually doesn’t take very much effort on my part. That’s why I was so surprised today when I read Green Lantern #45, written by the illustrious Geoff Johns, and ran across the following grammatical error from the mouth of Hal Jordan’s on-again, off-again love interest Carol Ferris:

“Hal and I broke up more times then he’s charged his ring.”

Maybe some of you don’t even see the error, but to me, “then” stands out like a sore thumb. So what’s the point of all this? I mentioned it in passing during a conversation with my friend Faith, and the following dialogue came out of it. I thought it was funny, so upon her suggestion, I’m posting it here. (Forgive our grammatical laziness, specifically the lack of capitalization. This was just a private instant message conversation.)

Me: I saw a spelling/grammar error in a comic today

Faith: no way!

Me: yeah. my previously unwavering faith in geoff johns was shaken.

Faith: oh no!

Me: it’ll take some time but I think we can patch things up

Faith: so sad

Faith: I know you two will make it work out

Faith: you’re made for each other

Me: I hope you’re right

Me: things have been so great until now

Me: I don’t want it to end so suddenly

Faith: it’s the first stutter in your relationship, give it time, things will go back to normal

Me: just because he used “then” when he clearly meant “than”

Faith: oh, that’s not as bad as I thought

Faith: it’s just one bad issue. It’ll go back to normal next time

Me: that shouldn’t get past the proofreader!!

Faith: see, that’s not him

Faith: that’s an external force

Me: but he wrote it in the first place!

Faith: honey, you’re arguing semantics in a one time situation

Faith: everyone slips up a bit

Me: this is sounding too much like a real almost-break-up so I’m going to stop before I seriously frighten myself

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