The 4 Most Embarrassing Cases of Misreading a Situation
Thanks to auto-correct, constant texting, and a general lackadaisical attitude toward the language arts, many of us aren't as careful about spelling and grammar as we used to be -- which is why we should be especially horrified by stories of people who screwed up their lives by mistyping one little letter. Remember: The next time you encounter the alphabet, this could be you.
One Wrong Letter Almost Sends Tourist to the Wrong Continent
One day, 62-year-old Lamenda Kingdon decided to visit the famed Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain. After booking her flight, packing her things, and screaming "See ya on the flippy floppy, SUCKAS!" to assorted friends and family, Kingdon got on the plane. Even after noticing that her ticket said "Grenada" and not "Granada," she thought everything was kosher.
"Maybe that's how they spell it in Spain, because sometimes foreign countries and places are spelt differently." -Actual quote
One in-flight gin and tonic later, Lamenda mentioned how excited she was to see the Alhambra to a fellow passenger, who responded "Not on this flight you won't." And that was the moment when Lamenda Kingdon found out she was on her way to Grenada in the Caribbean, not Granada in Europe. But don't feel too bad for Kingdon. She got off in St. Lucia, spent six hours in the airport's executive lounge, flew back home, and got on a plane to Granada the next day. But wouldn't it have been funny if she had ended up in a grenade factory instead?
Israel Tweets the Anniversary of the Yom Kippur War; Investors Miss the "Anniversary" Part
On the 40th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, also known as the October War for people who are baffled silly by un-English words, the Israeli Defense Forces decided to commemorate it by sending out this tweet:
"Shit, the Soviets are back?!"
Notice the hashtag #YomKippur73. It's kind of important, because without it, the tweet just reads "Israeli Air Force bombards airports in Syria to prevent Soviet weapons reaching the Syrian Army." So a news-weary reader could interpret this as an attack happening now. You know who's quick to the draw when they see the words "bomb" and "Syria"? Oil investors, that's who. Before the rumor police pulled up and shut the buying frenzy down, oil was up a dollar, all because investors missed #YomKippur73.
So that's where we are as a society right now: too greedy to not exploit possible war news and too stupid to pick up how hashtags work. #losers
"If only someone could come up with a way to show people we're sorry."
Brazilian Hackers Accidentally Hit NASA Website Instead of NSA
Last month, reports showed that the NSA had been spying on Brazil (along with every other country in the world). Tensions rose when the Brazilian president canceled her planned U.S. trip, and Brazilian hackers decided to take up the reins of the fight against the NSA. So they went online and hacked several American government websites ... except the sites they took down were NASA's, not the NSA's.
"Seriously, guys? This is rocket science."
Over a dozen NASA sites were taken down and replaced with images and text with lines like "Obama heartless!" and "NASA Hacked!" along with the appropriate "The Illuminati are now visibly acting!" Hold your horses, ESL hackers! While we're 99 percent sure the NSA is up in your shit, you can leave the Illuminati out of it. They've got no beef with you.
Investors Surge Money into Tweeter Instead of Twitter
Struggling (well, basically dead) home electronics company Tweeter Home Entertainment Group woke up to an incredible surprise earlier this month when their stock surged up 1,800 percent. Why? Because that was the same day Twitter's stock went public.
And they thought October 2 was impressive.
It turned out Tweeter's penny stock ticker was TWTRQ, while Twitter's is TWTR, which leads us to believe that the same grandma who got you a version of Start Warts off a street vendor was the same person who handled most of the TWTRQ purchases. With confused investors finally realizing that just because Twitter has tweets, it doesn't mean Tweeter is Twitter, Tweeter's stock immediately fell back down to a meager 684 percent rise by the end of the day.
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