Okay, with this one we have to start out with a disclaimer--yes, I KNOW I'm the last person who should be taking others to task for homophonic abuse, but this one jumped out at me like a flag-stealing squirrel. So to speak.
Anyway, this article--Cemetery's flags found in squirrel nest--details the great sleuthing work by a cemetery groundskeeper who figured out who was stealing the small American flags from graves. Turns out it wasn't snot-nosed kids, but Varmint Cong. Okay, fine. But here is what caught my eye:
[...] "I was mowing, looked up out into the distance, and something caught my eye," said Dave Ender, a groundskeeper employed by the Eau Claire Parks and Recreation Department.
He drove his riding lawnmower to a nearby street intersection and looked up a tree.
"Low and behold, I found the missing flags," Ender said. [...]
Although we now know it only if prefixed by the capital letter J, the word we're actually looking for here is "LO and behold." Just a silly irksome thing, right up there with people who write "toe TOW the line," or "tough roe to hoe."
Thank goodness the news media have editors to catch stuff like this. (I wish I had one to catch formatting errors.)
UPDATE: Thankfully, I DO have Steevil, who noticed that I got MYSELF in trouble with toe/tow. I keep reading "tow the line" but the reference is supposed to be everyone standing straight in a line, with their toes all aligned on a line marked on the ground, the allusion meant to convey bringing order and discipline to a situation. BUT I STILL MANAGED TO MESS UP the spelling when I did it. Silly non-edited blogger! A more thorough telling of the usage can be found here.
Posted by Terry Oglesby at September 7, 2006 10:09 AMShould I be concerned that you had no comment on the fact that he "drove his riding lawnmower to a nearby street intersection"?
While I realize it's occasionally done by the insane, this sort of thing makes me nervous. Unless, of course, this is your groundskeeper.
Posted by: skinnydan at September 7, 2006 10:52 AMMaybe he's auditioning for a sequel to The Straight Story.
Posted by: Sarah G. at September 7, 2006 11:06 AMOr maybe he was recreating one of George Jones' more memorable moments...
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at September 7, 2006 11:25 AM...and one doesn't tow a line, one tows whatever is at the other end of the line, like Steevil's boat last week.
Posted by: steevil (Dr Weevil's bro Steve) at September 7, 2006 03:54 PMI hear he has a very able mechanic, though.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at September 7, 2006 04:01 PMDon't be ashamed, in fact encourage your inner pedantry. I am attempting to reclaim the term in the name of clarity; rescue it, if you like, from the brush-off, get-with-the-times insult it has become.
Posted by: The Paedent at October 6, 2006 07:52 AM