If you're near a computer keyboard or a typewriter, look at where the letters "w" and "t" are. They're quite close together; only two keys separate them. And if you should confuse those two keys--or any two keys, depending on the context--it can cause problems.
This happened in a story we published last week, "A Night at the Triple-T." The piece, about the Tucson Truck Terminal, discussed a number of characters at the famous truck stop. Two of these characters, both named Josh, are guys who work at the Triple-T servicing the incoming rigs. We referred to them as Josh2.
The story described Josh2 as two hard-working, likable guys. But later in the story, there was this incongruent sentence: "Josh2 is not hustling to fuel and check Allen Eberly's 4-year-old Kenworth, with its classic paint job --"
That "not" should have been the word "now," making the sentence read, "Josh2 is now hustling to fuel and check --"
Our apologies to Josh2 and the folks at the Tucson Truck Terminal for the typo. We've corrected the gaffe on our Web site, and are running a correction in the standard place at the end of our Mailbag section.
And to all you writers out there: Beware of the difference in meaning that one silly mistyped letter can cause.