troublesome line division

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated Mon, 23 Feb 2004 21:53:56 -0800, "Arnold M. Zwicky"
<zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU> writes

>  from our own paul mcfedries's Word Spy book (2004), p. 190:
>
>     ...The use of the term was possibly inspired by the semi-
>     otician Umberto Eco's 1967 essay...
>
>  line divisions courtesy of the editors, or (more likely) their
>  word-processing programs.
>
>  what i  want to know is: just how close did umberto eco come to being
>  an otician?

A semi-otician treats hearing problems among tractor-trailer drivers.

A little more seriously, I am curious as to whether Professor Eco would be
amused by this typo.  (Oddly, he need not speak English to understand it, since
"semi" is from Latin).  My opinion of him would be much lowered if he were not.

OT - has anyone gone public claiming a direct descent from Eco's _Foucault's
Pendulum_ and the recent _Da Vinci Code_?

For other accidental semioticianisms, there is the Tue, 24 Feb 2004 12:00:22
EST post which reads "Cary Grant, a closest bisexual, ..." and the headline
currently showing on AOL News which reads

          Crackdown on Shock Jocks
          Risky Tast for Astronauts


      - James A. Landau