I’m a recovering pedant. I try not to let my work as a copyeditor/proofreader spill over into my daily life. I know how annoying it is to have someone gleefully pointing out errors, not least because there are so many of them all around us that once you get started, there’s scarcely room for anything else. And to a certain extent, as long as the communicative intent is clear enough, what are a few stray apostrophes or typos between friends?

But yesterday I broke my rule. Yesterday, I found myself compelled to send an email that began “I’m sorry to be a pedant, but this seems like the sort of thing you would want to know.”

See below, and weep. I’m sure many of you received the same email. If you had images enabled in your mail reader, you are probably blissfully unaware of what was lurking beneath them. I envy you.