Further proof ...

... as if any as needed, that Microsoft is the beast of the Apocalypse:

An Australian publisher is reprinting 7,000 cookbooks over a recipe for pasta with "salt and freshly ground black people."

Penguin Group Australia's head of publishing, Bob Sessions, acknowledged the proofreader for the Pasta Bible should have picked up the error, but called it nothing more than a "silly mistake."

The "Pasta Bible" recipe for spelt tagliatelle with sardines and prosciutto was supposed to call for black pepper.

Anyone who has dealt with the horrible auto-correct function in Word knows exactly how this happened. Someone was typing "pepper" and accidentally hit the "O" right next to the letter "P" and Word did the rest.

That said, I don't think the publisher is doing himself any favours with this response:

"We're mortified that this has become an issue of any kind and why anyone would be offended, we don't know," he told The Sydney Morning Herald for a story printed Saturday.

"We've said to bookstores that if anyone is small-minded enough to complain about this ... silly mistake, we will happily replace (the book) for them."

Yes, it was just a silly mistake and you meant no harm Mr. Sessions but if you honestly can't see why others might be offended then you need your head examined. Harm is not just a matter of intention but is also a matter of result*. What you meant to say is that you are mortified that this happened and you hope everyone will understand that it was just a silly mistake and that you want to assure anyone who has a copy that you will cheerfully replace it if they are offended.


*This sentence has been improved a bit since I first posted.