Some friends and I have recently become addicted to The Stranger, Seattle’s alternative newspaper. Their blog is called the Slog, and is quite funny. At the end of 2008, The Stranger ran a feature story made up entirely of their error notices for the year, plus staff regrets which did not have to do with errors.
Here are my top 7 favorite errors:
- In the November 20 issue of The Stranger, Jonah Spangenthal-Lee inadvertently misspelled Mosaic Community Church pastor Jady Griffin’s name. Mr. Spangenthal-Lee, who knows a thing or two about misspelled names, regrets the error.
- In the readings calendar, for months and months of 2008, books editor Paul Constant inadvertently listed the Seattle Poetry Slam as happening in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Stranger regrets poetry slams.
- In the August 28 issue of The Stranger, in the Bumbershoot guide, the bottom of a Q&A with Nick Thune was cut off. This was devastating, because it was the most entertaining part of the piece. It should have read: “Q: Aside from the shelved pilot and the baboon attack, your career seems to be zipping along most promisingly. Has Scientology come calling? A: Scientology hasn’t gotten me. To be honest, sometimes it feels like they don’t even care anymore.”
- The Stranger Election Control Board somewhat regrets calling secretary of state candidate Jason Osgood a “paranoid, sweaty, nervous wreck”—which, given that he was running for public office for the first time, may have been a bit harsh.
- In the June 26 issue of The Stranger, in a review of WALL•E, former Stranger film editor Annie Wagner described WALL•E’s insect friend as “a beetle.” In fact, WALL•E’s friend is a cockroach—crucial to the joke about what beings (cockroaches) and foodstuffs (Twinkies) might survive an apocalypse. Ms. Wagner was under the misapprehension that the cockroach (of the order Blattaria) was a variety of beetle (order Coleoptera), and not having room to explain the survival joke, she decided that “beetle” sounded cuter than “cockroach.” We regret the error. Beetles and cockroaches don’t even share a superorder.
- Jen Graves, the visual art editor of The Stranger, regrets that she did not know how to pronounce “Che” of Che Guevara, and that she tried on several pronunciations, aloud, while giving a talk at Seattle Art Museum.
- Dan Savage, the editorial director of The Stranger, does not regret a single word he wrote in the wake of Proposition 8. He does regret the dismal state of reading comprehension today, as evidenced by the confused reaction to some of what he wrote. Mr. Savage would like to state for the record: “Your inability to read isn’t evidence that I’m racist.”
And that’s it!
Inspirational Quote:
Bob Dole – “The internet is a great way to get on the net.”
