Though I and many other Certified Realtime Reporters do a fine job of feeding attorneys their daily dose of token-verified Engate-compliant LiveNote and Summation feeds, sometimes the words just don't come out right. Whether it's chronic word boundary issues, a five-person simultaneous bickerfest or just a straight-up Amtrak derailment of concentration, we do get reminded from time to time that we're not infallible.

Oftentimes our little foibles scroll up the screen unnoticed; alternately, there are times our transgressions get called out and become indelible black-and-white screw-ups that live forever on the record. The latter is the impetus behind the coining of the word:

sphinc•ta•se•cond \'sphiŋ(k)-te-'se-kend\ n.: The duration of time between the realization your mistran is about to be read into the record and it actually occurring, wherein sudden-onset rectal clenching occurs.

Certainly the actual time it takes for this to occur is a mere fraction of a second, but last week when "logistics" tranned as "lodge is technician" and I realized counsel was about to frame a question along the lines of "What did the technician do," it seemed like I could have yelled, "No-o-o-o-o-o-o-o!" and dove for her computer in frame-by-frame slow-mo... and, yes, there was clenching.

"Assert your right to make a few mistakes. If people can't accept your imperfections, that's their fault." - Dr. David M. Burns