Whenever I hear of an example of misunderstanding, I am always reminded of the politically incorrect but oh so funny punchline of a joke about a Chinese guy who is walking along one day with his Jewish friend. The Jew suddenly slugs the Chinese man. "What was that for?" asks the Chinese man. “That was for Pearl Harbor!" "Pearl Harbor?” complains the Chinese man, “that was the Japanese. I'm Chinese." "Chinese, Japanese, what's the difference?" says his friend. They continue walking in silence, when the Chinese man suddenly punches the Jew in the face. “What's that all about?" the Jew asks. “That was for the Titanic!" "The Titanic? That was an iceberg!" protests the Jew. "Iceberg, Goldberg, what's the difference?"

Montreal journalist and author Craig Silverman has made a career out of spotting typos in the media. He is the founder and editor of RegretTheError.com, and author of the book Regret the Error: How Media Mistakes Pollute the Press and Imperil Free Speech. The book contains a hilarious collection of journalistic slip-ups and corrections, media inaccuracies, obiticide (printing the obituary of a person very much alive and well) and other errors.

Here is a selection of errors that I have culled from Craig’s site and other sources:
• Apostle, apostate – what’s the difference? A student newspaper in Brigham Young University, the Mormon university in Utah, erroneously referred in a caption to a photo of senior Latter-day Saints officials as "Apostates" instead of "Apostles." The newspaper staff had to physically retrieve more than 18,500 copies of the paper and reprint it with the typo corrected.
• Conservation, conversation – what’s the difference? Eco-warriors may well love a good chat as much as a tree hug, but the digitally dyslexic reporter of the West Australian created a new organisation when he/she discussed recycling with the Conversation Council instead of the Conservation Council.
• Volcano, tornado, what’s the difference? The Swindon Advertiser carried the headline: "Houses damaged as parts of UK struck by volcanoes". In their later clarification, they wrote: "We realise that the headline we printed might have given the impression that Swindon and the rest of the country were in the process of being consumed in a maelstrom of superheated doom. We apologise for any distress or confusion this may have caused."
• Solitude, solicitude, what’s the difference? The Guardian described Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel as One Hundred Years of Solicitude instead of One Hundred Years of Solitude.
• Tyson Gay, Tyson Homosexual, what’s the difference? The American Family Association’s OneNewsNow site has a filter that automatically changes the word “gay” to “homosexual.” When sprinter Tyson Gay burst on to the scene at the US Olympic track and field trials, the filter changed his name to Tyson Homosexual.