Editor's Corner

Good morning, folks! We are swamped in editing, so I’m sharing part of a Richard Lederer article with you today, from his column in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

It is as hard to correct a typographical error as it is to unring a bell, put toothpaste back in a tube, put a genie back in a bottle, or stuff lava back into an erupted volcano. The typographical terrors that follow turn newspaper editors into typochondriacs:

A baby announcement concluded with an unfortunate misspelling that demonstrated how the inadvertent substitution of a single letter can totally reverse meaning: “The happy parents have the congratulations of all on this suspicious event.”

Ah, the difference a letter or two can make:

• He received his graduate degree in unclear physics.
• The defendant was charged with carless driving.
• Taylor Frey led the Cougars with eight tickles.
• Diane’s wedding drew a terrific crowd, including Sally Bates, who everybody thought was a broad.
• Walter and Rebecca Hill announce the coming marriage of their daughter Helene. No mate has been selected for the wedding.
• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and place the foot in it. It will be ready in one hour.
• If you feel strongly about any particular subject, why not write to the Gazette about it? We prefer discussion about local, rather than rational, topics.

Even when a newspaper staff discovers that it has splattered egg on its pages, the cleanup operation can be embarrassingly messy, as witness these so-called corrections:

• Our paper carried the notice last week that Mr. Oscar Hoffnagle is a defective on the police force. This was a typographical error. Mr. Hoffnagle is, of course, a detective on the police farce.
• It was incorrectly reported last Friday that today is T-shirt Appreciation Week. It is actually Teacher Appreciation Week.
• In a recent edition we referred to the chairman of Chrysler Corporation as Lee Iacooccoo. His real name is Lee Iacacca. The Gazette regrets the error.
• The marriage of Freda Van Amburg and William Branton, which was announced in this paper a few weeks ago, was a mistake we wish to correct.

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Knowledge Enablement

Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com

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