de-served "hot corn"

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Jan 4, 2008, at 4:45 PM, James Harbeck wrote:

> This is no response, but you might find it amusing. It's from a
> letter in response to a column by Richard Lederer in a magazine of
> which I have a copy:

and this magazine is ... ?

>
> ----
> Although I loved Richard Lederer's light-hearted look at heteronyms,
> I find it necessary to point out a couple of issues with the article.
> [...] and "His just deserts..." (oops again, should be "desserts" in
> that context, which would fail to meet the requirement of heteronyms.)
> ----
>
> This is in a publication that one expects to have reasonably
> well-educated readers who pride themselves on being right about
> things (NOT editors, however). I await the responses in the next
> issue...

"just desserts" has an ecdb entry:

   http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/english/599/dessert/

(one of the comments mentions "just deserves", which doesn't yet have
an entry.)

i'm beginning to wonder whether there's any point in trying to
maintain the ecdb, when people don't consult it.

my apologies for cluttering up the mailing list with boring eggcorn
stuff.

arnold

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