A Tallahassee, Florida, mother who texted her daughter in a hurry accidentally asked about the “baby woes,” meaning “baby wipes,” and came to the conclusion that we need a new phrase: “read between the autocorrect.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Read Between the Autocorrect”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hello, how are you? This is Claudette McCann from Tallahassee, Florida.
Hi, Claudette. We’re super groovy over here. How about you?
Hey, Claudette.
Hi. I’m doing well.
What’s going on?
Well, I was driving home one day, and I love listening to your show, which I know everybody tells you, but I really do.
I had just, we can only text at stop signs when you’re not driving in cars, but oftentimes those are pretty quick.
And I had this text message going back and forth with one of my daughters, and she was asking me where the baby wipes were.
So I sent my text back, and then I get this huh from her, and I thought, okay, let me see what I actually texted.
So it was like, where are the baby woes?
And I thought, well, I can understand that there could be a problem if you can’t find the baby wipe.
But my text said, whoa.
So I thought, well, you know, and it’s happened several times where I’ll get this huh back from somebody.
So I’ve decided we need to coin the phrase, instead of read between the lines, it needs to be read between the autocorrect.
I agree with you completely.
Because it almost sounds like a philosophical question.
Where are the baby’s woes?
That’s right.
Or the baby woes.
Yes.
The baby woes.
He is pretty woeful because we do need to find the whites.
Yeah.
A little bum needs some TLC, huh?
Yeah.
Ever since I got an iPhone and started using Siri and using Siri to dictate because I’m too lazy to type.
Oh, my gosh.
You’re a modern woman.
You’re not lazy, Martha.
Don’t talk about yourself like that.
All right.
I’m efficient.
You’re forward-thinking and modern.
I’m efficient, but Siri is ruining my life.
Well, she does have her own interpretations of things, I think.
She does.
It’s not that she’s ruining my life necessarily.
There are a lot of misunderstandings, but there are a lot of really funny things.
In fact, I’ve started with my friends using the acronym LTTS, which just means let that typo stand, because sometimes they’re really funny.
Well, they are funny.
I mean, the other day my daughter said, I’m going to try to sleep for a little bit.
Abscond to your house afterwards.
Abscond?
Abscond.
What did she mean?
What did she intend to type?
She was really trying to say, and come to your house afterwards.
Oh, okay.
I’m sure, you know, I got the gist of it.
That sounds more exciting to have gone to someone’s house.
Right, that’s right.
Claudette, my question for you is, have you adopted any of those things into your texting?
Because I’ve certainly done that.
I have a friend, when she’s coming to the house, she will say, any needs?
Like, should I stop by the store and pick up anything?
But it came out once Ganymede, and Ganymede, of course, was the youth with the erotic attachment to Zeus.
And this is a moon of Jupiter.
Yeah, yeah, it’s a moon of Jupiter, too.
But we just use Ganymedes now when we want to say any needs.
Do you have anything that you’ve adopted into your texting vocabulary?
No, I really haven’t done that.
Maybe it’s because they’re too random for me.
But, you know, that would be interesting.
But, you know, chances are I’m not going to adopt anything that’s cute and intentional.
But Googling around, I do see a handful of other people who use the expression read between the autocorrect.
And it’s always the cases that you describe.
It’s where, well, you know what I mean.
It’s like it’s pretty clear that unless you want to be mean or just pretend to be dense, you’re going to get what they meant.
But there’s also a joke in there somewhere.
Claudette, I’m betting that a lot of other listeners are going to let us know words that they’ve adopted from autocorrect mistakes.
What do you bet?
Oh, they probably will.
And maybe I should.
But, you know, maybe one of these days I’ll find one that I think is particularly cute or compelling.
Or that has just a secret meaning between the person I’m texting and adopt that one.
Okay.
Well, let us know, okay?
All right.
Have a good day.
Take care.
Drive carefully.
Bye-bye.
Tell us about how you read between the autocorrects.
What has it done to your typing?
Email words@waywordradio.org.
