Dear dimwit on the phone

That's happened to me twice at a former paper.

Lady called to say I left her grandson out of my story, and it was the same lady both times. Her grandson scored two points in each of those games and she was upset he wasn't in the story.

 

It's called a boxscore...that's where Jimmy and his one free throw is.

 

Yes. Had that. And the player in question was a football lineman. (I'm actually one of those writers who does try to include the names of lineman when a team has an outstanding offensive game.)

 

By added to just the online one or reprinted? I've dealt with the latter, which is far more insane.

 

Same thing here. Only in my case, I had all five offensive linemen in the story, and then the blocking fullback's dad came at me with a fury.

 

That strikes me as at least a claim with a tiny bit of merit. Not a ton, grant you, but it's not as insane as parents of defensive players who want their kids mentioned in an 11-0 soccer drubbing.

 

I usually write it something like: "The Podunk like of John Doe, Bill Smith, Dick Sucker, Steve Fartknocker and Barack Obama controlled the line of scrimmage, paving the way for the Chipmunks to rush for 385 yards."

 

Remember that JV lineman who played half a series in the fourth quarter when the game was out of hand? The one who wasn't on the roster? Expect to hear from his mom.

 

More of a "Dear Drunk Asshole,"

Yes, sir, Fox changed the Fox game in our area from the San Diego game to the 49ers game after we printed it in our paper. We so sorry, longtime.
That does not give you the right to tell me to call my SE and tell him about it. That won't fix anything, and it's his day off....call tomorrow after 10 a.m.
No, sir, I am not being defiant. I don't think you know what that word means.
OK, telling me I fucked up will get you hung up on. Goodbye.

*moments later, phone rings...we have ID, it's him again, so slot guy answers this time*

No sir, we won't call our SE to tell him he "fucked up." Yes, we have your number and will pass your number to the cops if you continue to harass us.

*click*

This went on for a while, he called again and our agate guy hung up on him and then he called the city desk. Obviously he wanted us to reverse time, or something...we still haven't called the cops...but we are contemplating it.

 

Caller ID is a powerful weapon in the war against dimwits.

 

We used to have some guy calling in all the time to call us "bigots" for not giving a college football team in another state the same coverage we give to the in-state Division I football programs. I think he was the first caller I ever hung up on. Then he promptly called another number in the department to repeat his tantrum.

 

At my last stop, I was the only department head who didn't have caller ID on my phone. When I asked for one - after a series of calls like this one - I was told by our publisher "Suck it up; it's part of the business."