The menu for President Obama's first state dinner was full of typos. Spell check anyone? White House photo, Lawrence Jackson
State dinner riddled with typos
One would assume the protocol officers at the White House would know a thing or two about spell check, but apparently not.
The New York Times points out that the menu for President Obama’s first state dinner, in honor of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, was rife with typos.
Seems the president’s crew is making this a habit.
From the NYT:
The second course of the evening was paired, for example, with a delicious 2006 Brooks Riesling, which, the menu noted, was bottled in “Wilamette Valley, Oregon.”
A diligent copy editor would have changed that to the proper spelling, “Willamette Valley.”
For their third course, the 320 guests were offered a dish that, according to the menu, included potato dumplings with tomato chutney and “chick peas,” which should in fact have been “chickpeas.” That course, the menu noted, was paired with an excellent red wine, a “2007 Granache” from Beckmen Vineyards. The correct spelling of the popular varietal, one of the most widely planted types of red grape in the world, is actually “Grenache” with only one “a,” not two.
The last bottle of the night was equally impressive, a sparkling chardonnay from Virginia. It was listed as a “Thibaut Janisson Brut,” missing a hyphen between the first two words. And last but not least, the dessert may have been free of error in taste, but not so in spelling. It included, according to the menu, passion fruit and vanilla “Gelees,” the French word for “gelled,” which, when written correctly, includes an acute accent on the second “e.”
Way to go! At least they didn’t attempt to translate anything.
Here’s an image of the menu:
