Lawyer Must Have Wondered Whether Typo Would Lead to a Penalty

The item here about goofs by legal secretaries took Lane Quigley back three decades to when he was a new lawyer at an insurance company.

“Our dictation went to a steno pool (remember those?), and most of the typists were unfamiliar with legal terms,” he said.

Quigley had filed a declaration with the court and, at the conclusion, “I included the language required by the Code of Civil Procedure: ‘I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct.’

“When the document was returned for my signature, it read: ‘I declare under plenty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct.’ ”

Mused Quigley: “I often wondered what the judge would have done had I not realized the mistake before signing and filing the declaration.”

Spelling confusion: In Eagle Rock, Carl Matthes of L.A. spotted a “STOP” warning that got a little “aheda” itself.

I’ve proudly admitted it to my Hall of Fame of Pavement Humor, which includes a bum job, a bad example for school kids, and a wrong right turn (see photos).

Incidentally, Matthes saw the same mistake painted on the other side of the street to puzzle drivers coming from the other direction.

Will they get the point? One of the problems facing the young job seeker of today is the tattoo body art that his or her classmates so admired.

Would a potential employer be turned off?

“If it is too great a percentage of the body, or in the wrong place, it will definitely impact the thought process of the hiring firm,” one dean of the USC business school told the Daily Trojan in suitably dry tones.

One exception: bookstores, to an extent.

“Pretty much anything goes,” a Santa Monica bookstore manager told the Trojan. But the manager, who was covered with tattoos and piercings herself, added: “It depends on how extreme it is. If someone has a chain attached from their nose piercing to their ear and purple hair, they wouldn’t be hired.” So, there you have it job seekers. When you go for that interview, leave the chain that connects your nose piercing and your ear in the car

Mondegreen of the Day: “I overheard a co-worker say, ‘California’s politicians are all incontinent,’ ” wrote Megan Lord, “and it made me remember my 2-year-old daughter’s rendition: ‘God Bless America, Land that I love, Stand beside her and Diaper through the night with a light from above.... ‘ “ Observed Lord: “May have been too many small children in one home.”

miscelLAny: “The Family Room,” a play about one family going through a series of therapy sessions, just opened at the Powerhouse Theater in Santa Monica, and therapists will receive a $3 discount. How does that make you feel?

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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATIMES, Ext. 77083; by fax at (213) 237-4712; by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A. 90012; and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.