UNBELIEVEABLE!! (her words, not ours)

You just cost my kid a band scholarship, dammit!!!

 

Doesn't seem to me like it's that hard of a concept to grasp.


But there are reasons why they have to put instructions on shampoo bottles.

 

Imagine my horror/amusement Friday night after big game between two in-city rivals and I am standing on the field waiting for players to stop touching the rivalry trophy so I can interview a couple of them after coach gives his talk, and just then, a mother asks me "will us parents get a chance to take team photos." Mind you, I was on deadline, after an OT game, down a man to furlough. It took every ounce of restraint for me to not reply "Ma'am, this is varsity high school football, not fricking little league."

 

So she spelled it correctly the first time and misspelled it -- in all caps, no less -- on the second?

 

UNBELEEVABLE?

 

That's it!

 

It no longer bothers me that people outside newspapers don't understand what I do. Hell, my relatives have no idea what I do, even though I've tried to explain it to them many times. What does bother me, though, is that there are too many people working in newsrooms, and have for any number of years, who don't understand the concept of lead, centerpiece, etc. You don't need to know how to do every job in a newsroom, but you should be familar with plenty of them.

 

Baited breath? Really?