Dear dimwit on the phone

Great story. Nothing like one-upsmanship at a funeral.

And taking obits only from a funeral home should be standard practice. Let them deal with the headache.

 

We started that policy as well. Still irritates the occasional person who doesn't read the policy newspaper at all who sits in our lobby and demands we run her version of the obit. The difference is that our chain was supposedly burned one time by a man faking his death.

 

It's so irritating when people use the newspaper as a way to get back at family. I had a man come into the office, saying his ex-wife baptized his kid without his permission and all that. I was on deadline, so I just said, OK, I can't do anything now, but I'll talk to you tomorrow. It somehow sounded like an interesting story, then I started talking with the man, who brought his fiancée and mother into the office the next day. Didn't want me to print any names, or talk to the church, or talk to the ex-wife. I'm like, uh, sorry, that's not really what we do. Settle this yourself or write a letter to the editor and say whatever you want.

 

One of my co-workers handles that one nicely.

Caller: "Do you know what time the Yankees play today."
Co-worker: "Yes, we do. But thank you for checking."

 

We had some headaches from people out of town, who wanted to e-mail something in and just have it printed. But it's nothing compared to the disaster we had with the two teenagers.

 

New verse, same as the first:

Dear lady whose daughter won the tennis tournament:

The coach was the one who misspelled your daughter's name when he turned the photo in to the paper. Turned out he also, for whatever reason, listed the winners in the opposite order they appeared in the photograph.

So you'd like the photo rerun. Well, that's not the policy and I can't go against it. All I can do is run a correction.

Oh, you'd like "the person over my head?" Fine, that's our publisher.

Now if your goal in calling the publisher is getting this "lousy rule of mine" overturned, I'd like to wish you good luck with that. The publisher is the one who set it in the first place. She got tired of seeing us repeat entire articles because of misspelled names, thankfully bringing an end to a stupid policy our previous publisher had.

Sincerely,

Apeman

 

Just to play Devil's Advocate, but if the names were misspelled AND the order was wrong, wouldn't it be easier to just rerun the 2-column team photo than write a correction that'll probably take up almost as much space?
I get why you have the policy, but when something gets that screwed up it might warrant an exception.

 

Dear two local 11-year old Little League coaches,
Yes, I know your kids try just as hard. I'm sorry I couldn't make the first game but we were covering the Major Division, where the kids are actually playing for something cool. Who cares if you're basically JV.
When we talked this afternoon, you were super pumped I was going to be doing a story on your team, even if it was over the phone. Heck, I even showed up to shoot the first inning of one of your games. I told the both of you I would call you after I finished with the game I was covering. I also told both of you to try me if you didn;t hear from me by 10. I got back to the office at 9:45 p.m. and first thing I did was call you. Neither one of you picked up.
It's nearly 10:30 p.m. If I call you, you're not going to answer and you're going to be pissed.
So how about this. I'm going to run photos of the cleanup crew fixing the field, mention how you guys got smoked, and that's it. Then in a column I've been planning, I'm going to go out of my way to crush you. I won't mention you by name, but when you read it, you'll know exactly who I'm talking about.
Fuck you both.
-Rhody

PS And I swear to god if I get an e-mail or phone call tomorrow morning about how it was late when you got home, that's too fucking bad. If you want coverage, you play by my rules.

 

Rhody I learned a lesson about that my junior prom ... Was going to use a friends parents convertible ... All I had to do was be there at four to get it ... I was fucking around and got there at five to a note saying you're late and we'regone. Sorry. ... If you want something don't be late picking it up ... Or don't bitch if you don't get it ... You can't have both ... Good for you

 

That's professional.

 

I suppose if the publisher overrules me, it will run. But I'm of that sort of paranoid "Then everyone will expect it" train of thought. And as I said in the previous post, we used to re-do everything and I don't want us heading back down that road. Besides, it's not my rule; it's her's, so I'd still need her approval.

 

@Rhody: Had one Little League mom send us scores at 11:30 one night and call the next day wondering where the scores were, since that's what she did under previous management. I don't work that way, even though we're a pm'er. Soon as that last MLB box score rolls in, bam, we're off the floor and loading the web. I'm not staying up all night for your game, especially when you have a reputation for not calling in when the kids lose!