[lit-ideas] Re: More Bloopers from Students and the Morality of It All


On Nov 29, 2007, at 6:50 AM, Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx wrote:
D. Ritchie has J. M. Geary pouring scorn on one of D. Ritchie's (female?) students, 

who mispelt 'valour' as 'veleur'.
I wrote a long post, so far uncommented, on the intelligence of the girl, and the bad taste on people -- who were not there -- to pour scorn on a mistake that was possibly due to D. Ritchie pronouncing Buchan aloud (in Scots) and the girl being a native 
Oregonian.
Veleur is related to 'lure' and allure (in one reading of allure) -- so the girl was being (perhaps unconsciously) being witty (if not 'gentile').
She wrote "velour," a reference to a kind of material here associated with nineteen seventies exercise outfits and the seats of dining chairs. I thought it was a wonderfully rich error, a typo (of the sort we all commit) that conjured amusing pictures. 

David Ritchie,
Portland, Oregon

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