For One What?

In an article about Laurent de Brunhoff in the December 2 New York Times, Jacob Bernstein wrote the following:

After finally settling on an apartment building at Lexington Avenue and 82nd Street, Mr. de Brunhoff and Ms. Rose came to the conclusion that they’d made a good choice. For one, he loved how quiet it was on the back side of the building. For another, said his wife, “you don’t feel so old on the Upper East Side because you aren’t surrounded by the young and the beautiful.”

This is a good example of a common mistake, using “for one” without answering the question “one what?” I hear it a lot in radio interviews, but haven't noticed it often in edited text.

Here's what  I wrote about the subject in Common Errors in English Usage:

People often say “for one” when they mean “for one thing”: “I really want to go to the movie. For one, Kevin Spacey is my favorite actor.” (One what?) The only time you should use “for one” by itself to give an example of something is when you have earlier mentioned a class to which the example belongs: “There are a lot of reasons I don’t want your old car. For one, there are squirrels living in the upholstery.” (One reason.) 

Because you can’t notice this mistake until you’ve already gone past the point which should have held the preparatory phrase, it probably goes right by most people unheard.

In written prose it could be created by an editing error which deletes the preparatory phrase without noticing the effect the edit has on what follows

Not a big deal, but worth remembering when you’re writing for an audience that includes picky readers like me.