When I pick up the (paper) New York Times, I always turn to page 2 to read the corrections. Since the Times is so obsessive about beating its chest over every error it has made, the record-set-straighting can be amusing. A couple of weeks ago, this classic appeared:
Because of editing errors, an article on Thursday about a duo that has its first Top 10 single and its first No. 1 album on the Billboard album chart misstated its name at two points. As the article correctly noted elsewhere, it is Daft Punk — not Daft Puck or Daft Pink.
The mistakes came about because daft is still on the radar as a NOOB. Presumably, the success of the French musical duo will speed the word’s ascent to full-fledged status.
Hasn’t happened yet, however. On Sunday, I opened up my home-town Philadelphia Inquirer to find this:
notoneoffbritishisms.com 
Sorry for the webism, but LOL!
mistakes come because they are rampant in the papers. Proofreading jobs evidently don’t exist anymore. it’s a close-enough-is-good-enough phenomenon that is sweeping the world. It’s really got nothing to do with NOOBs. The guardian does it as well. lol.
🙂
That’s simply daft — although it did make me laugh out loud!
And as for the Grauniad (sic — read Private Eye) …
So someone must be in a deep funk about Daft Punk?
Well, Daft Punk ARE French.
There’s an Art of Noise album called “Daft” though.
and ‘Imgaine’ (aka Imagine) Dragons in the same chart
Reuters too, they “sighted” a report yesterday.
Daft as a brush.
See, this is partly why I enjoy reading this blog. It’s not so much wondering what our colonial cousins are up to, but what words and phrases are colloquial British. I honestly didn’t know that ‘daft’ is such a word.
But why would ‘daft’ be reproduced correctly and ‘punk’ not?
For the answer to that, I suppose you’d have to ask the French.
Daft is a great word, used expertly by Ron Nasty of The Rutles in their legendary biopic All You Need Is Cash. When asked by a journalist about the uproar following his “Rutles Bigger Than Jesus” quote, Ron replies: “I think it proves you’re all daft. Suppose I’ll get in trouble for saying that now.”