The Man in the Yellow Hat Knows the Quickest Way to Harlem


Alison Morris - June 11, 2008

Every time I see the title Curious George Takes a Train pop up in a sales report, I misread it as "Curious George Takes the A Train." (EVERY. SINGLE. TIME!) My brain then IMMEDIATELY begins playing a loop of Duke Ellington‘s "Take the A Train." The tune is a rather pleasant accompaniment to my work, so I don’t actually mind it, but I kick myself every time for not being able to read this title properly. I’m going to coin my own disorder here and say that I have swinglexia.

Last weekend when Gareth and I were in New York City visiting friends and attending MoCCA (more on that soon!),at one point we hopped a ride on the A train, and my brain immediately snapped to sounds of Duke Ellington and images of Curious George. I’m picturing a new ad campaign for the MTA

Anything trip you up like this on a regular basis? Are there things you misread with regularity? If so, please share.

6 thoughts on “The Man in the Yellow Hat Knows the Quickest Way to Harlem

  1. Rowena

    I was renently in Seattle visiting my brother and his family; we had just dropped off a friend at the UW hospital dental clinic, gone under an underpass near the lake, when I spotted a sign that read “Department of Gnome Sciences”!

    Reply
  2. Fuse #8

    This doesn’t technically count as misreading, but every time I see the new Emily Jenkins book “What Happens on Wednesdays” I immediately fill it in with “What happens on Wednesdays STAYS on Wednesdays”. I am such a nerd.

    Reply
  3. Kevin A. Lewis

    Sorry to divert the theme, Alison, but what did you think of the Scholastic sudy about teen reading habits? I think about 5 million Stephanie Meyer fans might thnk they’ve arrived at a debatable conclusion…

    Reply
  4. ProdData

    I ride the A train every day and every day I hear Ellington band in my head when I see the train pull into the station. If only the lowly L train had Billy Strayhorn write a song about it.

    Reply

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