Now and then I find myself thinking about my readers and wondering, why haven't I heard from so-and-so in a while?

One of my paranoid theories involves my most common email typo.

I'm not sure why. But I routinely respond to reader submissions by typing "Thanks for shating that."

I like to think I always catch that and fix it to read "sharing."

But chances are, a few of those shatings have escaped my notice. And that would be bad.

Obviously, it is sloppy and careless -- even if email standards tend to be somewhat relaxed. But far worse than that is the prospect that the scatological-sounding mistake could be interpreted as my judgment of the submission's merits.

I might as well call someone's story or observation a piece of shat. Which I would almost never do.

So, if you ever got an email reply from me that said "Thanks for shating that," please realize I meant to say "sharing."

And please feel free to do so again. Share, that is. Not shat.  

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