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From: "Arthur J. O'Dwyer" <ajo@andrew.cmu.edu>
Newsgroups: alt.ascii-art
Subject: Re: ASCII Stuff
Date: Tue, 27 May 2003 23:23:44 -0400 (EDT)
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
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On Tue, 27 May 2003, Emil Nitrate wrote:
>
> In message <3ed36ad4$0$24012$626a54ce@news.free.fr>  "BoD" wrote:
>
> >> jest and that is usually limited to Kirra (sp?) and Tran.
> >
> >Sorry to ask that but I see this abbreviation ("sp?") often, and I don't
> >know what it means.
> >Thanks for your help :)
>
> "Spelling in question"  also abbreviated at (sic).

As long as we're being anal, [sic] usually connotes disapproval of someone
_else's_ spelling or grammar; while [sp?] usually connotes doubt of one's
_own_ spelling (never grammar).  E.g.:

    I have a moustache. (sp?)

    The New York Times reports that I have "a mustach [sic]."

[sic], AFAIK, literally means "it was/is that way" (cf. "Sic transit
gloria," "Sic semper tyrannis," etc.)  Thus, the writer is reassuring
the devoted reader that what he wrote was, in fact, what he meant to
write.

The New Yorker, I believe, once held a contest to see who could come
up with the most ridiculous takeoffs on literary themes.  I only
remember one of the entries, but it's a topical doozy:

    O Sleepless as the river under thee,
    Vaulting the sea, the prairies' dreaming sod,
    Unto us lowliest sometime sweep, descend
    And of the curveship [sic] lend a myth to God.


-Arthur