Out of the ordinary - Grammar guerrillas sentenced

PHOENIX - When it comes to marking up historic signs, goodgrammar is a bad defense.

Two vigilantes against typos who defaced a more than 60-year-old, hand-painted sign at Grand Canyon National Park were sentencedto probation and banned from national parks for a year. Jeff Deckand Benjamin Herson pleaded guilty Aug. 11 for the damage done March28 at the Desert View Watchtower.

The sign was made by Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter, the architectwho designed the rustic 1930s watchtower and other landmarks.

Deck and Herson, both 28, toured the U.S. this spring, wiping outerrors on government and private signs. They were interviewed by NPRand the Chicago Tribune, which called them "a pair of Kerouacs armedwith ... erasers and righteous indignation."

An affidavit by National Park Service agent Christopher A. Smithsaid investigators learned of the vandalism from an Internet siteoperated by Deck on behalf of the Typo Eradication AdvancementLeague.

They used a marker to cover an erroneous apostrophe, put theapostrophe in its proper place with white-out and added a comma. Amisspelled word, "emense," was not fixed, Deck wrote, because "I wasreluctant to disfigure the sign any further."