To stem the proliferation of cucumbers.

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Sat Mar 19, 2005 2:53 pm

SusanV · **Posted:** Sat Mar 19, 2005 3:09 pm

I like this one even better.

I'd never heard of that site before. Thanks!

Oeditpus Rex · **Posted:** Sat Mar 19, 2005 3:44 pm

Nor had I, and reading it made me think of newspaper sites that don't run corrections, which include a former employer and the others in the chain. Anyone else know of papers that don't run corrections online? Anyone ever heard a rationale for not running them?

EMorse · **Posted:** Sat Mar 19, 2005 5:34 pm

My favorite newspaper correction ever, from a paper in England (courtesy of one of those "365 Dumbest Things Ever Said" daily calendars, hence the lack of link):

In a previous edition, we described [name] as a defective in the police force. Obviously, this was an error. Mr. [name] is a detective in the police farce.

jjmoney62 · **Posted:** Sun Mar 20, 2005 9:11 am

The Web site at which readers can enter for the Win Win Win feature of the G3 games page is www.nationalpost.com. An incorrect address appeared in yesterday's National Post. The Post regrets the error.

KfitzR · **Posted:** Sun Mar 20, 2005 10:36 am

Actually my favourite correction of all time is a real oldie, and I've long lost the clip, but it was pretty close to this:

"In Yesterday's Leader-Post we quoted [then] Prime Minister John Diefenbaker as saying, "shrdlu shrdlu." What the prime minister actually said was, "shrdlu etaoin shrdlu shrdlu."

paulwiggins · **Posted:** Thu Mar 24, 2005 4:48 pm

A legendary Australian journalist once rang a publican to apologise for his behaviour: "I'm sorry I called you a b----. I meant to call you a f------ b----."

Oeditpus Rex · **Posted:** Thu Mar 24, 2005 8:30 pm

KfitzR wrote:

"In Yesterday's Leader-Post we quoted [then] Prime Minister John Diefenbaker as saying, "shrdlu shrdlu." What the prime minister actually said was, "shrdlu etaoin shrdlu shrdlu."

A couple million people, maybe, clearly heard W say on teevee Wednesday night re the Schiavo case, "It's time to watch the courts make its decisions." I heard him; so did a poster at democraticunderground.com, who noted that he picked up the next day's paper and saw "its" changed to "their."

I expect no correction because, well, that's what he meant.

SuchASlot · **Joined:** Thu Oct 21, 2004 12:01 am **Posts:** 1189

KfitzR wrote:

Actually my favourite correction of all time is a real oldie, and I've long lost the clip, but it was pretty close to this:

"In Yesterday's Leader-Post we quoted [then] Prime Minister John Diefenbaker as saying, "shrdlu shrdlu." What the prime minister actually said was, "shrdlu etaoin shrdlu shrdlu."

To that, I reply: "qwer asdf, qwer asdf."

KfitzR · **Posted:** Sat Mar 26, 2005 8:55 pm

Ah, Such, but that's typewriter keyboard. etaoin shrdlu was linotype!

SuchASlot · **Joined:** Thu Oct 21, 2004 12:01 am **Posts:** 1189

Yes, and I suppose a more apt "modern translation" actually would have been "qaz, wsx." But then again, most of us now probably just use X's.

KfitzR · **Posted:** Sun Mar 27, 2005 10:24 am

The thing with linotypes was that they HAD to finish out a line before they could reject the bum slug, so etaoin shrdlu was t he quickest way to fill a line and get rid of the mistake - send it back to the lead pot for remelting.
They really were wonderful old machines, she said, nostalgically, feeling like a relic from some bygone era.
Give up my G5 with the wide flat screen? Nope, not that nostalgic!

SuchASlot · **Joined:** Thu Oct 21, 2004 12:01 am **Posts:** 1189

I admit the only time I've seen a Linotype machine up close was in a dusty, windowless storage room at my first newspaper job â€” which was recent enough that a plan to convert to pagination predated me by a few weeks.

But on the other hand, several years and a few newspapers later, the only time I've seen a computer as modern as a G5 up close was in an Apple store, so...

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To stem the proliferation of cucumbers.

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