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Freudian typo: The accidental emoticon

Some time ago, I ran across the following Freudian typo in a mail thread discussing plans for the project after Milestone 3, commonly abbreviated M3.

I'd like to talk with you about your plans for this area after <3.

On the US-English keyboard layout, the M and comma keys are adjacent, and a shifted comma is a less-than sign. A simple off-by-one-key typo resulted in M3 turning into an emoticon.

Published Tuesday, October 27, 2009 7:00 AM by oldnewthing
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Comments

# re: Freudian typo: The accidental emoticon

Tuesday, October 27, 2009 8:10 AM by John Topley

On the UK keyboard layout too.

# re: Freudian typo: The accidental emoticon

Tuesday, October 27, 2009 4:08 PM by VMax

QWERTY keyboards have the I and U keys adjacent. What I meant to tell the customer was that we were going to *shut* down his link at 2AM...

# re: Freudian typo: The accidental emoticon

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 1:42 PM by none

Oh, it's a heart ... I always thought it was a bikini top ... that makes a good deal more sense.

# re: Freudian typo: The accidental emoticon

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 4:29 PM by Joel

@VMax: I've actually had a document locked by profanity-blocking software when I mistyped the third letter in "shuttle".

# re: Freudian typo: The accidental emoticon

Monday, November 02, 2009 11:01 PM by Tander

This is hilarious.

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