A truly spectacular newspaper malapropism

A malapropism is using the wrong word in place of one that sounds similar. You might get away with saying them out loud, but newspapers aren't so lucky.

So pity the East Oregonian, which this week printed this headline:

We're sorry to disappoint everyone, but Pat Venditte may be the first Major League Baseball player in 20 years to pitch with both his left and right hands and therefore be ambidextrous, but he can't (yet) do it underwater.

"Oh, man," said the paper's managing editor Daniel Wattenburger when informed by the JimRomenesko.com website of the error.

"It's a little embarrassing."

The East Oregonian is in good company however, former US president George W Bush was so prone to malapropisms that the term Bushism was coined to cover them.

In 2002, he said: "The law I sign today directs new funds... to the task of collecting vital intelligence... on weapons of mass production."

Image via Neill Woelk

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