NewsBiscuit » Remington typewriter http://www.newsbiscuit.com The news before it happens... Sun, 12 Feb 2012 12:00:37 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Writer hounded to death by spell-checker left suicide note ‘littered with errors’ http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2009/04/03/writer-hounded-to-death-by-spell-checker-left-suicide-note-%e2%80%98littered-with-errors%e2%80%99/ http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2009/04/03/writer-hounded-to-death-by-spell-checker-left-suicide-note-%e2%80%98littered-with-errors%e2%80%99/#comments Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:00:54 +0000 roybland http://newsbiscuit.com/?p=11201 Fred Wilson, 54, was driven to suicide after abandoning his Remington typewriter for a PC with spell-check facility, a court heard today. “He would type a sentence on his computer and then groan as red and green wavy lines appeared on the screen,” said his widow.]]> 'Aaaarrrgh!' (No spelling suggestions)

'Aaaarrrgh!' (No spelling suggestions)

Fred Wilson, 54, was driven to suicide after abandoning his Remington typewriter for a PC with spell-check facility, a court heard today.  ‘He would type a sentence on his computer and then groan as red and green wavy lines appeared on the screen,’ said his widow.  Mrs Wilson knew things were bad when her husband started to correct her shopping lists, challenging entries such as ‘smoked bacon’ with the comment ‘Fragment, consider revising.’

However, the coroner was forced to record an open verdict after a number of basic grammatical mistakes in the suicide note left its meaning unclear.  One passage suggested Mr Wilson may have intended to live after all, but he then signed-off mid-sentence after the computer’s default American-English setting forced him to spell ‘demoralised’ with a ‘z’.

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