Re: [Pan-users] Purging headers

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Sat, 6 Dec 2008 08:24:58 am Joe Zeff wrote:
> On 12/05/2008 CSV4ME2 wrote:
> > I did answer your question,
>
> And I'm not saying that you didn't.  However, I fail to understand
> how you could be looking at my name and misspell it that way.  At the
> age of 59, I can, quite literally, say that I've found that type of
> thing offensive for over half a century, having gotten tired of it at
> about six or seven.  I've also learned that the only way to prevent
> it happening again is to make it *very* *clear* the first time that
> it is unacceptable.

No offence is intended Joe (and I say that explicitly because your post 
suggests that you have a very thin-skin and treat quite minor social 
faux pas as if they were a deliberate attack on you) but given the fact 
that you've had half a century of people mis-reading "Joe Zeff" 
as "Jeff", shouldn't that tell you by now that it is a very easy 
mistake to make?

As for you not understanding how it happens, it's quite simple. To a 
native English speaker, words starting with both J and Z are relatively 
uncommon, both Joe and Jeff are quite short, and Zeff is an unusual 
sounding word. It's quite easy for somebody not paying attention to 
carelessly conflate the first letter from your first name with the tail 
of your surname and come up with: "Joe Zeff" -> "J eff" -> "Jeff". I'm 
sorry if giving this obvious explanation offends you, but you did say 
that you fail to understand, and in a later post you say that Jeff is 
unrelated to your name. It actually is.

Now, if you want a couple of real mysteries, I'd like to know why so 
many people over the years have heard my name as "Peter", and why does 
my Aunt Rose insist on calling my wife Anne "Debbie"?


-- 
Steven