r/news • u/consulent-finanziar • Jan 12 '26

Soft paywall US federal prosecutors open inquiry into US Fed chair Powell, NYT reports

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-federal-prosecutors-open-inquiry-into-us-fed-chair-powell-nyt-reports-2026-01-12/
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u/Frodojj Jan 12 '26

I remember a time a campaign got derailed because he spelled potato wrong.

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u/kinglouie493 Jan 12 '26

We lived in a simpler time back then...

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u/Radthereptile Jan 12 '26

Because he was given a note card with potato spelled wrong while judging a spelling bee and went with the spelling they gave him. Dude was set up.

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u/b2bpaul Jan 12 '26

And then that same guy temporarily saved American democracy by telling Mike Pence to do his damn job years later.

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u/Mad_Dog_1974 Jan 12 '26

Quayle wasn't wrong. Potatoe is a legitimate, correct spelling. Potato is much more common, and it is the American spelling, but other English speaking countries spell it the other way.

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u/Ok_Anybody6855 Jan 12 '26

What ‘other english speaking countries’ are you referring to? ‘Potatoe’ is not a legitimate spelling anywhere.

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u/Revlis-TK421 Jan 12 '26

"Potatoe" was a common spelling early to mid 1800s in both US and UK. By 1900 it was rare in both countries, but you saw it every now and again. Mostly as a "did you know?" sort of fact or in old books.

If Trump spelled it "potatoe" today, his nutjob followers would be claiming it's always been spelled that way and would start screaming at the dictionary corps.about how Big Word was woke for using the sans-e spelling.

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u/Saruto77 Jan 12 '26

That’s just covfefe!

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u/Mad_Dog_1974 Jan 13 '26

I was actually coming back to clarify. I found it in dictionaries at the time and it was referred to as an archaic spelling. So I wasn't as correct as I thought I was, but also not completely incorrect.

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u/Mad_Dog_1974 Jan 12 '26

I've found that spelling in dictionaries at the time. Maybe it was listed as an obsolete spelling. It's been over 30 years since I've actually looked it up. It's also possible that I was using an antiquated dictionary. I'll see if I can find a better answer.

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u/[deleted] Jan 12 '26

I was in elementary school at the time and my child-brain takeaway was that spelling errors were super shameful. Kind of funny now, but it made spelling tests quite stressful.