Will Spell Check Put an End to the Kennedy Dynasty?: And Be Very Careful When You Try to Correct Murray Rothbard

The Kennedy political dynasty has been close to its last breath for some time.

One last hope is Rep. Joe Kennedy III who is running for US Senate in a close race in Massachusetts against the current seated senator, Ed Markey. The primary is today.

In this past Sunday's local Worcester newspaper a pro-Kennedy ad, financed by the Greater Boston Local 103 IBEW union, ran in The Worcester Telegram & Gazette but the ad misspelled the city's name. The ad said Kennedy was "for Worchester." There is no "h" in the city's name.

Such an error by someone from Massachusetts would be highly unusual. It smacks of an out-of-town, way out of town, PR agency, maybe with a little help from spellcheck.

Spellchecks, in general, are getting better but if someone is running an old version, the word may "correct" to "Worchester."

Or it could be someone outside the Northeast corridor who doesn't know how the city spells its name.

By the way, this isn't the first time I have seen this error in an unusual place.

One of the recent Murray Rothbard collected essay books spells the city "Worchester." I really think this would be a very unusual error for any New Yorker to make, never mind Rothbard.

Some time ago, when I first spotted the error in the Rothbard book, I asked Michael Edelstein, who is originally from Brooklyn, if he was aware of the unusual way Worcester is spelled. He is. Further confirming my notion that it would be an odd error for Murray to make.

I then looked up how Worcester was spelled in the early volumes of Conceived in Liberty, which were published when Murray was still alive. The city is spelled correctly in the 4 volume set.

It is most likely either a spellcheck error or an outright error by the editor of the collection of essays.

The collection itself is very important and very well assembled but you have to be very, very careful when you try to correct Murray Rothbard.

-RW