Dear dimwit on the phone

You should have responded with "If you want to know how 8th grade boys are performing, check out any of the vast MTV shows on teen pregnancy. "

 

First, the background: The high school soccer team in my main coverage town blows (I'm talking loses 8-0 or worse almost every game bad -- so the recap is pretty rare), but since I am a weekly, I run senior features from the area every week. There are three features I planned for the soccer team. One was preseason for the identical twins, one is coming out next week about a kid who dropped 70 pounds from last season and trained with the National Guard over the summer, and the last is about a kid who is super-dedicated but not all that gifted and plans to attend college to be a mechanical engineer. The final kid is also the tennis coach's son, so I have gotten to know his wife decently well the past year at tennis meets.

Now, at the first soccer game I went to a couple weeks back, she asked if I was planning to do a senior article on her son, and I said, "Yes, but I don't know if it will be for soccer or for the spring with baseball, but probably this fall."

Well, guess who called me this morning after yesterday she saw me talking to the senior who dropped 70 pounds? Yep, that's right. She calls in wanting to nominate her son for the article (which I had run a disclaimer asking for nominations with the first two articles of the year, but no one called, so I canned it). I couldn't help but hang up and say, "Do you not listen to me when I talk to you in person?"

I'm still going to do the story, because I think it's a neat angle, but I'm not going to talk with him until the team banquet after the season is over, and I need filler before basketball starts.

 

I know this is usually reserved for sports dimwits but I've got a great one over on the news side this week.

First, the background. I had a freelancer write a story this week on a local doctor who occasionally does missionary work in Haiti.

Because it was a slow news week and because our main story crapped out on us (A murder trial of a local mom who is accused of drowning her daughter didn't get past jury selection in time for opening arguments to begin in time for our deadline as we were told they would), we ran this story big.

Well, needless to say the story runs and, lo and behold, the guy emails us complaining about the word our freelancer worded some of the statistics in the article. He starts his email with, and I'm quoting, "If any Haitian Nationalist reads your article they should be upset..."

Really? Sorry. Didn't realize we had a large portion of our readership was dedicated to Haitian Nationalists.

Fucking tool.

 

Someone is a fucking tool for pointing out a mistake in your story?

 

No, I don't mind the pointing out of the mistake. Just the presumption of "If a Haitian National reads this...".

To me, it's not different than having a parent point out a mistake in your box score on the basis of "If a Division I scout reads your story..."

 

What do Haitian Frenchists think?

 

I do not know, but they work really hard. Especially the swimmers.

 

No offense, but I don't think it's the same. We all know that a mistake in a box score is insignificant in terms of its effect on the recruitment of a high school athlete, so we can roll our eyes at a parent like the one you describe. But it sounds to me like the doctor was trying to explain why the mistake in the freelancer's story actually was significant, or would be to any Haitians who read it. That doesn't make him a tool, at least not to me. And how do you know no Haitians will read it? Do you know there are no Haitians in your circulation area? What's to stop Haitians from anywhere else in the world -- or even non-Haitians who are interested in Haiti, like the doctor -- from finding the story and reading it on the Internet?

 

Sir, nobody picked Creampuff State to beat Powerhouse U in the pick'em grid. As it clearly states, all NCAA picks are done against the spread. A couple of guys took Creampuff plus 33 points, not to win the actual game.

 

Funny, but at the same time...A LOT of people don't understand the spread. I would think straight picks would be better to run in a paper.

 

Wish I had a story like the one on the kid who dropped 70 pounds over the summer...that's awesome. Have fun with it.

 

Seriously, did he say Haitian nationalist or Haitian national?