I'd say "minimum attention to speling," too

Looking through the Portland Community College catalog that arrived in the mailbox yesterday, my wife discovered a course in French that looks like it won't be too taxing:

I thought to myself, "Wait a second! Shouldn't that be 'grammer'?" After all, when you see "grammar" misspelled, isn't it just about always "grammer"? Paul Brians' entry on the topic goes like this (links to the Web site are unavailable this week):

grammer/grammar

It’s amazing how many people write to thank me for helping them with their “grammer.” It’s “grammar.” The word is often incorrectly used to label patterns of spelling and usage that have nothing to do with the structure of language, the proper subject of grammar in the most conservative sense. Not all bad writing is due to bad grammar.

I, too, always assumed the correct way to incorrectly spell "grammar" is "grammer." I don't ever remember seeing "gramar" before, but in fact, something went completely haywire in the printed PCC catalog. Every single instance of "grammar" is misspelled. Here are some more humdingers:

To be fair, the PCC catalog on the Web seems to be free of this problem. I still have to wonder how it got through for this print edition, though.

Incidentally, the "grammer/grammar" entry is one of my favorites in Common Errors in English Usage. Not because I think misspelling "grammar" has an extra bit of irony to it, but because the entry addresses the problem, as it were, of using the word "grammar" as a synonym for "usage." I don't know how many times people have asked me about our Common Errors in Grammar book. In fact, the book addresses a little grammar, but its main concern is with correctable slip-ups in several categories of usage: punctuation, spelling, diction, pronunciation . . .

When you sign up for the Common Errors in English Usage e-calendar, I'll send you the daily entries even if you tell me you want the "grammar mailings," but whatever you do, don't tell me you want the "gramar mailings" or I'll be tempted to direct you to some PCC classes I know about.