Re: biopic and misled
The word that has tripped me up time after time is "sundried." For some reason, I first read it as a past tense variation of "sundry" as in "various and sundry." I read "sundried raisins" and wondered, "How do you sundry a raisin?" A hypen would have helped. "Sun-dried" would be easier to read.
A word I always have to look at twice is "miniseries."
Sometimes it looks like a plural - would "minisery" be a variant form of "misery"? Or could it be a noun form of the (imaginary or unknown) verb "miniss"?
At other times I might think it is a misspelling of "ministries" (change the first "e" of "miniseries" to a "t" to get the plural of "ministry").
Like telemath said about "sun-dried," a hyphen would help and "mini-series" is easier for me to catch the first time around. If I don't have to follow a style guide (i.e., it's not a formal situation) and that hyphen helps communicate more clearly and avoid confusion, I'm OK with it.
Regarding "baby" department in department stores, etc.
One thought: Just seeing "babies" would make one think that babies were for sale. This would also apply to other categories of persons, but I'm not struck by them as I am by "babies".
Another thought: Baby clothes are often sold not with the clothing of other categories of persons, but with other products for babies (see Target.com for an example of this). Perhaps this is considered a shortening of "baby products"?
Fo' shizzle I remember as a boy reading misled as mizzled. Funny, but another one I remember is puny as punny.
On the discussion of "funny hehe or funny haha?" we didn't have that delightful phrase, but would often ask for clarification of the descriptor funny with the question "funny haha or funny odd?"
[edit: added the following]
By the way, like Charlotte in Duluth, I am a regular listener to the Stuff You Should Know podcast. I e-mailed Josh and Chuck, the podcast hosts whose differing pronunciations of biopic inspired Charlotte to call in. They enjoyed listening to the AWWW podcast, and called it (perhaps ironically) "quite an honor to have people out there in the great wide world seeking ... help in understanding our mistakes."
Let me commend to you their podcasts in general:
Stuff You Should Know (SYSK)
MarcNaimark said:
Regarding "baby" department in department stores, etc.
One thought: Just seeing "babies" would make one think that babies were for sale.
Well, sure; but the same is true of Women or Men. How about Babies'?
Glenn said:
"funny haha or funny odd?"
I recall a Western on TV in which the question arose: "Funny haha, or funny peculiar?" And in a cartoon: "Funny haha, or funny sheesh?"