Jeff Shirton wrote:
"RST Engineering" wrote in message
...

Either English construction is different in Canada or your sentence
below could use some smithing. I don't know what an "and English
teacher" is.

Do you even know what a "typo" is?

In contrast, perhaps you could explain "smithing", as the topic of
discussion has nothing to do with metal-working.

From Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary:

smith: 2: MAKER -- often used in combination gunsmith tunesmith

They even have an entry under "wordsmith", so I think Jim's use was
justified and understandable.

Honestly though, I was hesitant to jump into this thread at all because
of exactly the possibility you mention above--chastising someone for
bad grammar when it was really just a typo.
:
Jim Rosinski