A Word to the Wise: Try Proofreading Rather Than Relying on Spellcheck

Television should create an Emmy category for the best unintentional humor in a closed-captioned broadcast. There’d be no shortage of candidates.

Just the other day a network newscast referred to “White House Stress Secretary Wary” Fleischer, viewer Russell Kishi of Glendale told the media Web site ronfineman.com. Even more bizarre was a sign-off for “Dateline NBC,” which showed up this way on the TV screen: “For awful us here at NBC News, good night.”

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Now for the outdoor competition: Karen Miller of Simi Valley spotted a warning in her city that made her ask: “What are the chances of getting this many words wrong on a single sign?” (see photo).

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Guide to Adventurous Dining: The specials du column (see photos), include:

* A casserole menu item that has a word missing, I hope (Sarah Lifton of San Diego).

* An eatery that must cook up a dandy chow mein smorgasboard (Sal Lombardo of West L.A).

* And, finally, a successor, perhaps, to downtown L.A.’s departed, but never forgotten, Kosher Burrito stand (Bob Lieberman of Torrance).

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El Lay vs. Noo Yawk (Cont.): L.A. native Marty Harris recalled buying a ticket for one of his first rides on a New York subway and asking what off ramp he should take.

Said Harris: “A voice from somewhere behind us shouted, ‘You’re from El Lay, aren’t you?’ ”

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Geographic differences: Mention was made here of how East Coasters, when giving directions, say turn left or right, while Southern Californians seem to prefer saying turn north, south etc. One ex-Bostonian, confused by the latter, said she was told she could judge directions out here by remembering that the ocean is to the west.

Which reminded me of a couple of pals of mine in much younger days who partied deep into the night in Mexico and then decided to head back up here.

After an hour of so, the sun began to rise and my friend in the passenger seat awoke. He stared out his window for a few minutes. And then he said, “Hey, Terry, isn’t the ocean supposed be on the left side?” Terry made no reply, merely executing a memorable U-turn and bravely re-starting the journey.

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Speaking of road trips: I’m off for my annual teaching chores at a high school journalism workshop at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. As you can imagine, I make quite an impression on the young journalists.

A couple of years ago, one lad was overheard commenting, “I can’t believe they chose someone with Harvey’s personality to teach humor writing.”

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miscelLAny: And so, for awful us here at Only in L.A., good night and see you in two weeks.

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Steve Harvey can be reached at steve.harvey@latimes.com.