The story referred to the time when "Bill and Melinda Gates was married." For those who insist that the collective noun "couple" takes a singular verb, consider this sample: "The couple was married in 1990. Two years later, it was divorced." Collective nouns can take either a singular or plural verb, depending on context. In the case of a marriage, there are two people involved, so they are plural.
Consider: "The crew is ready to make sail." (The crew is acting as a team.) Or, "The crew are going ashore." (Members of the crew are off for fun and games.)
Several decades ago, when computers were introduced in newsrooms, there was a system which not only told the computer the rules for hyphenation, but also had a lexicon, so the machine could cross-check its bid to hyphenate a word with a separate list showing how to break up a word that refused to follow the rules.
Such a system would have saved the New York Times from printing "ha-ven't."
The only thing needed then was to assign an editor to add words to the lexicon so such things do not happen a second time.
As a start, programs could obtain a copy of the Government Printing Office pocket-size booklet, Word Division. Capacity should not be a problem, since computer memories are so much bigger today.
My copy is dated 1968, and was priced at 95 cents.
And for doubters who say, "Surely you can't be serious," the response is, "I am serious. And don't call me Shirley."
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