MMeM, Vol.11 Issue 29 – Got that?

People just do not read these days. I’m sorry, I know I’ve griped about it before, but I think it’s getting worse. Nobody “reads” things anymore even when it’s their JOB to do so.

How could that be? How does that happen? Easy, “proof-reading” activities, once full-time jobs all themselves are now saddled with far more responsibilities picking up slack and extra duties from other areas. At least, that’s my theory.

I woke up this morning and decided to “scan” the news sites to see what was “NEWS” today. I saw this story about another maximum security prison escape. This time the escape was in Mexico near Mexico City, but what caught my attention was the escapee, Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, who made worldwide news in February 2014 when he was finally apprehended after being on the run for more than a decade. “Oh, sure I remember that story about this guy being caught”, I thought to myself. As I read the story I was reminded of the power and intrigue of such a huge drug kingpin so wealthy and infamous he was on the FORBES “World’s Most Powerful People” list estimated to be worth ~$1BILLION.

As I read the story, I was suddenly rendered semi-dyslexic and cross-eyed when I tripped over the following ‘sentence’; Guzman was initially Guatemala in 1993, extradited and sentenced to 20 years in prison in Mexico for murder and drug trafficking.

Look, I get that it’s a simple mistake, but as we all know, not all spell-check programs catch such grammar errors as referring to a person one time having been an actual country. I don’t know, maybe “El Chapo” WAS Guatemala at some time? He’s a fugitive billionaire for goodness sake!