From The Week Newsletter:
A California library was chagrined to discover that its new $40,000 mosaic of famous people in history misspells 11 names, including “Eistein,” “Shakespere,” and “Van Gough.” The city of Livermore quickly voted to spend $6,000 to have artist Maria Alquilar fix her mistakes, but she refused, saying that spelling was not important to the spirit of the work. “There seems to be so much hatred within certain people,” she said. “They continuously look for a scapegoat. I guess I am the sacrificial goat.”
No, just ignorant.
In a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle a writer suggeested:
Rather than accept any blame or offer any apology, Alquilar responded that “the people are into humanities and are into (William) Blake’s concept of enlightenment — they are not looking at the words. In their mind, the words register correctly.”
The City Council, having already spent $40,000 on the project, voted to spend $6,000 more — plus expenses — to fly Alquilar back from Florida to fix it.
I think the City Council has available a simple solution to save precious money: Upon completion of the work, issue a check for $6, not $6,000. In my mind, the numbers register correctly.