>>> March 21, 2002

Language police

Brilliant mistake: Whether you’re an English prof or a Scrabble buff, you’ll have something to learn from Errors In English, a dry-witted and extensive look at common mistakes in the English language. Did you know that “hone in” isn’t an expression and “ye” is pronounced “the”? Now you do. Learn more at www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/.

Put on a: Of all of nature’s cruel jokes—the ostrich, the platypus, the quince—few congenitally silly-looking creatures will bring a smile to a jaded human like the Hawaiian Happy Face Spiders.

Captured in a series of photographs, these species sport radiant day-glo yellow orbs for abdomens, bearing the ominous markings of the classic zonked-out happy face. This is no clever Internet hoax—you’ve never heard of them because these weird little freaks of coincidence were discovered in 1976, long after your high school texts were printed and shipped. Discover them for yourself at

biology.swau.edu/faculty/petr/ftphotos/hawaii/postcards/spiders/. :

—Michael Citrome

Comments? mikecitrome@yahoo.com