(w)reckless driving

this evening, Marget and i went to Wal-Mart to pick up some planters for her daffodil bulbs. on our way there (from UCSD), we went on the 52 to the 15 (to Aero Drive). when i missed getting on the 15 from the 52, she mentioned how she was glad that I didn't swerve frantically in an attempt to get on the 52, recounting a story of her first drive in college:

after her parents had helped her move in, she went out with a couple friends to a philipino party. her friend who was driving was talking on the cell phone and going 80, and when he realized he was going to miss the right turnoff, swerved across three lanes to make it. she said she was scared for her life, and she began to wonder if all SoCal drivers were that bad. (living here for a couple years has made her realize that not all of us are bad.)

anyway, on our way back from Wal-Mart, i once again missed the optimal turnoff (this time from the 15 to the 52), and blamed it again on my feeling sick. so i ended up getting off on miramar, and traffic was moving at a nice pace. however, a bit past the marine base, the car in front of us was suddenly braking. naturally i thought, "what the heck is up with this guy?", thinking he was from out of state (the easiest way for me to blame a bad driver, similar to how NorCal peeps blame SoCal'ers). it turned out, however, that a car, with its left blinker on, was stopped in the fast lane at the intersection with a green light. there was a "left turn/u-turn lane", so i was wondering why they weren't in the right lane. my mind immediately jumped to thinking that the driver of the stopped car was from out of town. the cars behind us almost piled up, but fortunately nothing happened. when i got over into the other lane and passed the stopped car, i looked over and found that it was an older couple in the stopped car. although i hadn't cursed them or anything, i felt bad for their predicament and the apparent frustration they had caused the other drivers (including me).

anyway, after going by my townhouse, we headed up Gilman Drive (two lanes each way) to go to her place on campus, and our third near-wreck happened. someone in a jeep, parked along the curb, came into traffic and almost hit me (who was in the left lane). fortunately, with me slowing down and swerving a bit, the driver realized that i was there and got back in the right lane. that is when Margret said, "we could have been in a wreck with all these wreckless drivers," or something of the sort. that's when i thought about wreck and reckless.

i decided to see if anyone (according to google) jotted down wreckless for reckless, enough to constitute an eggcorn. since the verb to reck is never used by anyone that i know, it seems like wreckless for reckless would be a reasonable eggcorn for someone to produce, especially since wreck is usually never far away. then i looked at the Eggcorn Database and noticed that Ken Lakritz had just commented on it a few days ago! anyway, it seems that an eggcorn is never far away, no matter the occassion. :) i'll try to post it as an eggcorn later this week if someone doesn't do so first, but i'm not sure what category (citational, questionable, or genuine) i would put it in.

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