Bob's Corner
In the Olden Days, when we in the real Press used hot lead (for type-setting) there were what we called Gremlins. These impudent rascals would tangle our fingers or befuddle our brains, so that errors would result. Sometimes we could call them typographical errors.
We in the Fourth Estate give them other terms too, none of which I can list here because this is, after all, a family newspaper. Suffice it to say that we abhor errors, mistakes, glitches, misinformation, blunders, boo-boos, slips, inaccuracies: I could go on. But I won’t.
One of the worries we have, what with producing a weekly newspaper (weekly, not weakly), is that when we goof, we can’t do much about it until the next issue. So the galling error festers, although sometimes we can lessen the pain by providing the correct information to those who telephone.
So that brings us, unfortunately, to last week’s escape … er … issue. Not only did we mess up three times (that we know of), but all three foul ups were on page 1. Nice place if you’re going to show off your bungling abilities. And here they are, for your edification:
- The headline that read, “Fed funds for JOINT?” should have read, “Fed funds for JOMET?”
- The second-to-last paragraph of the election story mistakenly noted that 16.44 percent of voters cast “No” ballots. The actual number is 61.44.
- And last, but not least, a headline read that the clinic open house was to be held Saturday, when actually it was Friday. The story correctly read that it was on Friday, as did the ad on page 16.
There are easily half a dozen excuses, justifications, defenses and pretexts I could provide for our muddling up. Want to hear some? I didn’t think so.
Fouling up is our least favorite activity around here what with everything being in black and white. But gaffes (Gremlins) will pop up periodically because we’re not perfect, which is somewhat of an understatement.
Let me just say that we’re sorry about our faults. In fact, mea maxima culpa. The captain goes down with his ship: The editor takes a deep breath and promises to press on.
