It took 10 years in Aust but it had to happen.

paulwiggins · **Posted:** Tue May 18, 2004 10:32 pm

In the body copy of Tuesday's Leader is a refence to a pubic school, instead of a public school. Buck stops on my desk.

Jackie · **Posted:** Tue May 18, 2004 11:24 pm

I don't think you're a real copy editor until you're involved in some way, however obscure, with the golden oldie pubic/public. By the way, I don't mean to sound glib, it's a horrible thing to happen on anyone's watch, it's just that our desk was talking about the pubic/public thing just a few days ago, laughing on the outside and shuddering on the inside.Perhaps I should tell you the extremely creative spelling of Whittier (c'mon just a little imagination) Elementary School not so many years ago..... (I'm sooo glad I do wire.)

Oeditpus Rex · **Posted:** Tue May 18, 2004 11:39 pm

Got this one from a friend who was in the biz 20, 25 years ago. He was at a small paper in California's San Joaquin Valley -- might've been the Firebaugh-Mendota Journal -- that had an ad one day for a clothing store announcing a "Big Pants and Shirt Sale."Yup. They dropped the 'r' in "Shirt."Of course, it's funnier because it happened on the Other Side. But still...

nstockdale · **Posted:** Wed May 19, 2004 12:31 am

I have a friend who is big enough to retell this story. He made the pubic/public error in a headline, something like: Council seeks pubic input. I wouldn't believe it if it hadn't come from him personally.

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Wed May 19, 2004 1:05 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Nicole Stockdale:
I have a friend who is big enough to retell this story. He made the pubic/public error in a headline, something like: Council seeks pubic input. I wouldn't believe it if it hadn't come from him personally.<hr></blockquote>I wouldn't believe it unless I saw a clip.

Jolieblonde · **Posted:** Wed May 19, 2004 10:09 am

At my first job, a superintendent in an outlying school district was named Fluck. Never was a name so carefully checked and rechecked.

tommangan · **Posted:** Wed May 19, 2004 11:42 am

A colleague at my first job confessed he wrote a headline about an attempt to quantify the avian population at a local nature preserve... think "bird count" minus the "o." In college we ran a story in the campus daily talking about "alcohol usage in pubic areas," which the campus adviser circled in red and scribbled, "I hear this is good at getting rid of crabs" or words to that effect.

Word Herder · **Posted:** Wed May 19, 2004 11:43 am

I recently had a great image of a woman catching a Frisbee during a lunchtime pickup game. I don't get a lot of action shots, so I ran it big on the Web site. The rocket I meant to write for the caption was "GOT IT! --" but I put the space in the wrong place.Luckily, the photog spotted my goof about two minutes after it went up and called me. It costs me a couple of beers a month to keep his mouth shut.

SusanV · **Posted:** Wed May 19, 2004 2:07 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Word Herder:
I recently had a great image of a woman catching a Frisbee during a lunchtime pickup game. I don't get a lot of action shots, so I ran it big on the Web site. The rocket I meant to write for the caption was "GOT IT! --" but I put the space in the wrong place.Luckily, the photog spotted my goof about two minutes after it went up and called me. It costs me a couple of beers a month to keep his mouth shut.<hr></blockquote>
Dr. Freud, call your office.

KfitzR · **Posted:** Wed May 19, 2004 2:21 pm

I, for one, would dearly love to be able to edit the word "pubic" out of the spellcheck, so that any time it was in a story it would jump out as wrong, and you could over-ride it if you wanted to.
My paranoia on this one stems from doing public relations for the Ontario Public Service Employees Union. We are, of course, very keen on public services and the wonderful work of public servants.
The potential for error is constant and horrible.

tomciav · **Posted:** Wed May 19, 2004 2:27 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by KfitzR:
I, for one, would dearly love to be able to edit the word "pubic" out of the spellcheck, so that any time it was in a story it would jump out as wrong, and you could over-ride it if you wanted to.
My paranoia on this one stems from doing public relations for the Ontario Public Service Employees Union. We are, of course, very keen on public services and the wonderful work of public servants.
The potential for error is constant and horrible.<hr></blockquote>I still hoist a glass to the managing editor at my college paper who caught the following attribution in one of my stories:"... said Jim DePuy, head of the university's Department of Pubic Safety."*shudder*

Jim Bond · **Posted:** Wed May 19, 2004 3:23 pm

This, from Dave Berry (we can believe Dave Barry, right?): An auto writer, in reviewing a sports car, wrote that the standard transmission provided an "easy, comfortable shift." That's what the reviewer *meant* to write, anyway.

nstockdale · **Posted:** Wed May 19, 2004 3:26 pm

I've worked at two newspapers that have edited the word "pubic" out of the dictionary, forcing spell check to stop on it. I don't know how to do it, but I know it can be done.

ADKbrown · **Posted:** Wed May 19, 2004 4:18 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by tom mangan:
A colleague at my first job confessed he wrote a headline about an attempt to quantify the avian population at a local nature preserve... think "bird count" minus the "o." <hr></blockquote>I worked at a paper where the same typo was made. In this case, a suspect was charged with "four cunts of rape." At least it was in the body text, not the headline.

mrleemrlee · **Posted:** Wed May 19, 2004 4:24 pm

My wife used to type real estate ads. One home had a "gorgeous wraparound deck." Except she mistyped "deck" with the wrong vowel. It ran that way.No word on how many calls the real estate agent got.

SusanV · **Posted:** Wed May 19, 2004 4:41 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Nicole Stockdale:
I've worked at two newspapers that have edited the word "pubic" out of the dictionary, forcing spell check to stop on it. I don't know how to do it, but I know it can be done.<hr></blockquote> If it's a Word-based program, the help index provides directions if you search for "exclude dictionary." Basically you create a file with the word or words you want to come up every time you run spellcheck. But apparently you need to be running Win 95/98 or NT 4; the instructions specify folders to which the newly created file is supposed to be saved, and I'm not finding any of 'em on my system, which runs 2000 Professional.

paulwiggins · **Posted:** Wed May 19, 2004 6:21 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Nicole Stockdale:
I've worked at two newspapers that have edited the word "pubic" out of the dictionary, forcing spell check to stop on it. I don't know how to do it, but I know it can be done.<hr></blockquote>
Those seeking inspiration will find it here. CyberPage allows the network administrator to do just that in a jiffy. I shall attend to the matter immediately.

EditThis · **Posted:** Thu May 20, 2004 8:21 am

We once had an overworked sports guy write a hed with something to the effect of "Hounds remain state champs" but transpose two letters in the verb. It made it through.And the town is still talking about the day when my paper left out a consonant attributing a quotation to the sheriff's office's shift supervisor. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if, later in the story, we hadn't left out another consonant when saying someone was going to assess the situation.Last week, when I was in the hospital, word of my career apparently traveled quickly from the nurses who had seen my check-in papers. Just before they put me under, the surgeon walked in and said, "We're going to be really careful with you. We need to get you back to work quickly so we don't have any more shit supervisors." No joke. It been two full years, and that's still what people bring up about my paper.

wisekwai · **Posted:** Thu May 20, 2004 9:08 am

I still have nightmares about the "o" that was dropped out of "county" in a page 1 headline at the Alton (Ill.) Telegraph. My news editor at the time, a former St Louis Globe Democrat hand, has worse nightmares, I'm sure.[ May 21, 2004: Message edited by: wisekwai ]

JayByrd · **Posted:** Thu May 20, 2004 12:13 pm

Way back in the days of paste-up, my (ex) wife was working in the composing room one day and noticed something wrong with the public notices header as she was putting the classifieds together. Upon checking, it was discovered it had been running that way for about four months with nary a peep from our readers.
J.A.Y.

buddhaofdisco · **Posted:** Thu May 20, 2004 1:05 pm

My valiant save one recent night: Our letters to the editor sometimes come in a bit sloppy. So, I'm reading one railing againsnt Bush-haters, and the writer mentioned the undying respect we should use when saluting 'flag-raped' coffins coming back from Iraq.j
www.blocletters.com

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Thu May 20, 2004 3:16 pm

Stop it. You're killing me.

bwalsh · **Posted:** Thu May 20, 2004 4:10 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by EditThis:
We once had an overworked sports guy write a hed with something to the effect of "Hounds remain state champs" but transpose two letters in the verb. It made it through.<hr></blockquote>OK, I give up. "Ermain"? "Rmeain"? "Remian"? "Remani"?[ May 20, 2004: Message edited by: Bill Walsh ]

Cootaboot · **Posted:** Thu May 20, 2004 4:59 pm

It wouldn't be transposition, but you could replace the "n" with an "m.""Hounds Remaim State Champions" has a nice ring to it.

Matthew Grieco · **Posted:** Thu May 20, 2004 5:13 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Bill Walsh:
OK, I give up. "Ermain"? "Rmeain"? "Remian"? "Remani"?<hr></blockquote>I'm guessing "reamin"?But I still like Cootaboot's better.

EditThis · **Posted:** Thu May 20, 2004 5:25 pm

Reamin indeed.

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Thu May 20, 2004 5:30 pm

May I suggest that it might be time to move on?

paulwiggins · **Posted:** Thu May 20, 2004 7:25 pm

I thank you all for the consolation.

Charles Bingham · **Posted:** Tue May 25, 2004 8:12 am

In my job as sports editor of a small newspaper in Alaska, one of my duties is the daily agate page (the scoreboard page with boxscores and event results, the tiny-type page). A few years ago a new NHL team entered the league -- the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim is the official name, but the team is commonly known as the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. Anyway, when NHL game summaries come over the AP wire, I have to type in the scoreline -- Bruins 3, Mighty Ducks 2 -- and then format the rest of the summary into our agate style. If you check out your computer keyboard, you might notice what troublesome letter (F) is just to the right of the D. My worst nightmare is accidently typing in a scoreline about an incredible sexual experience instead of a team nickname taken from a lousy Disney movie.

paulwiggins · **Posted:** Tue May 25, 2004 8:39 am

An aside: I've learnt the term agate from this board. My jargon is the snooker scores.[ May 25, 2004: Message edited by: Paul Wiggins ]

JPSheehan · **Posted:** Tue May 25, 2004 9:08 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Paul Wiggins:
My jargon is the snooker scores.
<hr></blockquote>Click here for all the snooker excitement.

Lee · **Posted:** Tue May 25, 2004 10:50 am

When I was in third grade, I sent the school faculty into an uproar with a question during an exam. We lost marks for incorrect spelling and I was a straight A+ student, so I wasn't taking chances. Was "no one" one word, two words or hyphenated? I guess my future was mapped out then.
I put in time as a reporter; I don't think I was a very good one, but I was a very good writer. These days I draw pages, and leave the words alone except for reading them to get an idea for layout.
But I still notice the words. I can't bring myself to buy from a store that has a misplaced apostrophe in its window display. I have corrected every school newsletter I've received. And so on...
A few days ago, I emailed myself a reminder message and got an "undeliverable" message from my ISP. I'd sent it to "pigpond.com", instead of "bigpond.com". It's probably just as well I leave the words alone! But I got a huge kick out of being in the pig pond. It's sooooooooooo accurate.
Typos rule!!!!!

Lee · **Posted:** Tue May 25, 2004 10:58 am

On another, related matter, wonderfully irreverent things can happen when dummy copy gets into the paper. Like the real estate ad in the Australian Jewish News which read:
"Insert other shit here".

SusanV · **Posted:** Tue May 25, 2004 11:11 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Lee:
On another, related matter, wonderfully irreverent things can happen when dummy copy gets into the paper. Like the real estate ad in the Australian Jewish News which read:
"Insert other shit here".<hr></blockquote>LOL! That's even better than More Mush from the Wimp.

EMorse · **Posted:** Tue May 25, 2004 1:51 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Lee:
On another, related matter, wonderfully irreverent things can happen when dummy copy gets into the paper. Like the real estate ad in the Australian Jewish News which read:
"Insert other shit here".<hr></blockquote>I recall reading a couple of years ago about a desk intern at a paper out West somewhere (Spokane?) who dummied a hed about the impending departure of the president of a Catholic university; something to the effect of "Nazi priest to retire." The hed made it into print. I'd love to see that internship evaluation.

Matthew Grieco · **Posted:** Tue May 25, 2004 2:21 pm

Some paper (in Ohio, I believe) a few years ago printed a photo of a local school's basketball team, and the photographer neglected to obtain the name of one of the students depicted. The copy editor used a gap-filler, and thus the following was printed: "Second row: Joe Blow, John Smith, John Doe, some fucker, Jim Jones."This clip was circulated about my newsroom with the note: "Things to watch out for when writing a cutline."

pzicari · **Posted:** Tue May 25, 2004 11:00 pm

It has been quite a few years, but I believe I saw that clip circulating in the newsroom. Wasn't the Plain Dealer, though. I think the guy circulating it was the fellow who kept a clip from an October paper in the '70s, reminding people to turn their, uh, clocks back at the end of daylight saving time.

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Tue May 25, 2004 11:31 pm

Let's see some evidence! Not that it's so outlandish, but we never see those yellowed clips.

ADKbrown · **Posted:** Wed May 26, 2004 8:54 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by SusanV:
LOL! That's even better than More Mush from the Wimp.<hr></blockquote>Was that a blooper? I didn't know that.

Jim Bond · **Posted:** Wed May 26, 2004 1:34 pm

A clip from an October paper in the '70s, reminding people to turn their, uh, clocks back at the end of daylight saving time. Hmm. Fall back is right, right? So this clip is remarkable because:
A) Ohio doesn't observe DST.
B) Ohio didn't observe DST in the '70s.
C) Ohio didn't have clocks in the '70s.
D) The writer actually wrote "uh, clocks."
E) Something else

Matthew Grieco · **Posted:** Wed May 26, 2004 2:28 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by blanp:
Let's see some evidence! Not that it's so outlandish, but we never see those yellowed clips.<hr></blockquote>I don't have it anymore, blanp. You'll just have to take my word when I say I held it in my own little hands once upon a time. It really happened.

Gatekeeper · **Posted:** Wed May 26, 2004 2:37 pm

On occasion we've had "XXXXXXX" get in the paper â€” typically photo overlines, an occasional lead-in and whatnot, although once we had an RVO and briefs template.GatekeeperP.S. And I once spelled "cemetery" as "cemetary" in a fairly good-sized headline (on an inside page, thank goodness).-30-

ramblerdan · **Posted:** Wed May 26, 2004 3:02 pm

I keep waiting for Bumf to chime in with this, but my fave is this boilerplate that appeared, unchanged, under a person's photo:dummyhead

paulwiggins · **Posted:** Wed May 26, 2004 6:58 pm

And then there was the newspaper not 500 miles away from where I am sitting at the moment that transposed the Dog of the Week strap with one under a photo of a nun. Much weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Wayne Countryman · **Posted:** Wed May 26, 2004 10:18 pm

My first paper's engraving department transposed mugshots of a convicted murderer-rapist-child molester and a saintly elderly man who'd devoted his life to coaching children in church athletic leagues.
The newsroom had no way of knowing this until we checked the early papers coming off the press.
As ranking editor in the building I ordered the press stopped and the circulation trucks unloaded. Predictions of my firing were inaccurate.

paulwiggins · **Posted:** Wed May 26, 2004 10:47 pm

In the unlikely event that you had been fired, you would have had plenty of people knocking on your door with job offers methinks.

vtuss · **Posted:** Wed May 26, 2004 10:57 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by ADKbrown:
Was that a blooper? I didn't know that.<hr></blockquote>From Dan Kennedy of the Boston Phoenix, who also writes a must-read blog on the media. Understandably, much is about Boston:Perhaps the most famous example of inadvertent media truth-telling occurred in 1980, when the late Kirk Scharfenberg wrote an editorial for the Boston Globe about some miserable speech then-president Jimmy Carter had delivered the night before on the topic of inflation. MUSH FROM THE WIMP was the exuberantly accurate fake headline Scharfenberg wrote for the amusement of his newsroom pals. The head actually made it into 160,000 papers before the press run was halted and it was changed to (yawn) ALL MUST SHARE THE BURDEN.

ADKbrown · **Posted:** Thu May 27, 2004 8:55 am

Vince, thanks for posting that story.

jtogyer · **Posted:** Thu May 27, 2004 2:08 pm

A web search reveals that the "Nazi" hed was "Nazi Priest Promotes His Book" in the Spokesman-Review in 2000. No, the priest wasn't a Nazi, though he was promoting his book.At my first paper, editors were encouraging lowly staffers like myself to write "suggested heds" on our stories. On the obituary for a former state legislator who had a remarkably lackluster career, I wrote the hed, "Lion of the Legislature Dead at 88," figuring the desk would get a chuckle.At 11:30 p.m., I strolled through the composing room and nearly fainted when I saw the printers pasting up a page with the head "Lion of the Legislature Dead at 88." I bolted back to the city room and a new hed was soon on its way.That night, the night news editor took me aside and gave me a clap on the back, along with the best advice I ever got: "Son, it's OK to have fun, but don't f--- with the newspaper."Now, our crosstown competitor once had a cutline that went something like this: "Guy on the left is mayor. Guy in the middle is Tony. Don't know who the other guy is. DON'T FORGET TO FIX THIS SPACE!!!!!!"

Wayne Countryman · **Posted:** Thu May 27, 2004 3:13 pm

When I visited a former employer an editor insisted on showing me "our latest": a Sunday features front with the lovely art hed "HED GOES HERE"; six columns, 120 point, all eight editions and 200,000 copies.[ May 27, 2004: Message edited by: Wayne Countryman ]

dasher · **Joined:** Tue Jan 14, 2003 1:01 am **Posts:** 26

I recall an auto ad in a major Chicago daily that carried the headline:FREE credit check
price BLOW out
your JOB is your credit.and, as blanp can attest, i have the clip to prove it ... (well, I did ... I left it in my office after I departed..)

Bumfketeer · **Posted:** Thu May 27, 2004 9:09 pm

From the racing agate in The New York Times:A horse named Count and Run was running at Aqueduct. The O was dropped out of the name. And yes, I have the clip.

KfitzR · **Posted:** Fri May 28, 2004 1:38 pm

late 60s at The Leader-Post:
1. drug store ad, the sort with lots of little boxes displaying featured items. Compositor [hot type days] couldn't make out the handwriting he was setting and asked a colleague. Reply: "Looks like Ukrainian to me." So the picture of baby powder had a caption under it reading: "Ukrainian protection."
2. Dropped "r" in an item about a pantry shower for a "bride-elect" caused humiliation to the rather naive women's editor [long before lifestyles were heard of] aptly named Bessie Bissett.
3. This one didn't get in, but the more worldly city editor had one heck of a time explaining to the aforementioned Bessie why it couldn't. She had done an historical piece on the demise of a favoured annual social event, and her head on it was: Whatever Happened to Bachelors' Balls We Held Before the War?
I've seen the first two and I eavesdropped on the discussion over the third.

ADKbrown · **Posted:** Fri May 28, 2004 1:53 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by KfitzR:
She had done an historical piece on the demise of a favoured annual social event, and her head on it was: Whatever Happened to Bachelors' Balls We Held Before the War?
<hr></blockquote>That must have been an interesting conversation. Reminds of the legendary hed about Liz Taylor's divorce that appeared in Albany (NY) paper: Liz loses Dick, keeps jewels. No clip, alas.

EditThis · **Posted:** Fri May 28, 2004 7:44 pm

I will be keeping a clip of one of our editions this week -- having been at the beach, I'm not sure of the day -- in which a certain part of a picture of Michaelangelo's David was Wite-Outed by some overzealous pressmen given the OK by a publisher awakened at 2 a.m. to the news that there was a picture of a naked man on 12A.

Matthew Grieco · **Posted:** Fri May 28, 2004 8:02 pm

Just be grateful that you work at a paper where the publisher actually sleeps.

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