Dear dimwit on the phone

Mark: Here is today's story:

http://poststar.com/news/local/watching-out-for-nursing-home-abuse-neglect/article_4dcafbc0-c02c-11e2-9d6b-0019bb2963f4.html

 

One for the anti-dimwit files. Names and schools changed to protect the innocent:

 

SPIRIT AWARD! YAY-EEE!!!

 

Calls where people complain about specific photo choices always tickle me.

The caller has no way of knowing what universe of photos we might be drawing from to illustrate a particular story -- the shooter might have a couple of appropriate frames, or perhaps there are dozens.

But the assumption is that we left out something better.

A couple of times lately we've run really strong lead images and people call to complain that it shows a player from this team or that team -- but not their team -- without regard to the fact that it's a great photo.

 

Dear prep parent:

I am sorry that you are upset we "made a big deal" about Powerhouse Central beating your team a few weeks ago.

Now your Podunk West team beat Powerhouse Central, and you are mad we didn't cover the game.

Do you really think we send reporters to every game and write stories only if the outcomes suit us?

Based on your last call, if we had covered the game and Powerhouse Central had won, I imagine you and your Podunk parents would burn down the building.

Cheers.

 

From an e-mail I received yesterday... The sender was a mom whose kids graduated from the same high school as the athletes she's talking about.

"The Harris boys" told me they're fraternal twins at the first meet of the year, and I've been reporting it all season. I met "the Harris boys'" mom a couple of weeks ago, and she didn't correct me. Of course, I didn't ask her whether her sons are twins or liars.

 

I can't believe I'm potentially going to defend this possible quack, but she could be right. When I was a substitute teacher, kids wouldn't correct me on the pronunciations of their own names - usually it was their friends who spoke up. Similarly, a co-worker let me mispronounce his last name for six months, until we were out with his brother at the bar one day. "Why do you keep calling him Cr-Its? It's pronounced Cr-Ights..."

 

We have a couple of football players in our coverage area who are in the same grade but are not twins. They never correct anyone about the twin references, I guess they just got tired of correcting people.

 

Is high school track season officially over now?

 

I understand. However, I straight-up asked them at the beginning of the year if they were twins, and they said yes. They even told me which one is older and by how many minutes, so it'd be a pretty elaborate lie (unless they've been making that joke their whole lives?)

They're not the only set of twins on their high school team -- both of which had one sibling not participate until this season, and now compete in the same events -- so I wrote a story about it in mid-April.

If I'm wrong, I'm very very wrong for a very long time. Even if their family doesn't get the paper, wouldn't someone have called me out before yesterday?

I'll have to ask Mama Harris if I see her at the state meet next week.

 

We had two graduates from one of our local high schools playing on a junior college golf team that was playing in the national tournament last week.

We did a short story with quotes from the players after they qualified for the tournament, Then, each day of the tournament, we ran a short story on how the team was doing (the school is on the extreme fringe of our circulation area) and had information on the two local players.

Got this e-mail yesterday: WHY HAVEN'T YOU WRITTEN ANYTHING ON THE TWO LOCAL KIDS PLAYING IN THE JUNIOR COLLEGE NATIONAL TOURNAMENT? I'VE SEEN NOTHING IN THE PAPER.

I e-mailed back, pointing out where each story was in each day's paper. Still haven't gotten a response.

The other call of the week:

CALLER: "My daughter wasn't listed on the roster you printed on the Podunk High team."
ME: "She wasn't on the roster given to us by the coach."
CALLER: "Well, I expect a correction in tomorrow's paper."
ME: "It was in today's paper, after the coach called us to tell us her name was accidentally left off the roster. Didn't you see it?"
CALLER: "I didn't read the paper today."

 

I'm surprised they didn't ask you to run the correction twice.

I've had something similar happen once. Ran a story, somebody called and asked why there hadn't been a story. Told them when I ran it.

CALLER: "Well, can you re-run it again?"

Me: "No, I can't"

CALLER: "Why?"

Me: "Because when our readers buy the paper, they generally expect to see something new in the paper each day."

CALLER: "Oh".