Dear dimwit on the phone

Here is a new one: Xzavier.
Evidently, the parents couldn't agree on Xavier, or Zavier, so they made it both. And it's probably pronounced Hov-EE-air.

 

Adventures in Proofreading, Vol. 144,658: In a profile about our local police chief, a woman named Penny, there's a reference to a domestic violence shelter she started.
She named it Peni's Shelter.
The reporter made a point to state that it was correct and that he had double-checked it with her.

 

Have you ever had a reader turn on the TV, come across a rebroadcast of something old and out of season (like an MLB game in February) and complain to the paper that it's not in the TV listings? And not only that, but the sports editor immediately takes the reader's side out of habit and also wants to know why it's not in the listings?

 

Sports team has a big win. On our website, sports team is the main story all night and the next morning. Since it's a new day, a different story has more reader interest so it becomes the new centerpiece. One reader who didn't see the website all those hours the other story was the centerpiece only sees the new centerpiece, thinks we're biased against the team and not making their win a bigger deal, then procedes to trash the team that is new centerpiece.

 

If only there was a way a news facility could print out the front page of the website each day, package it up with ads and have the specific date for those stories on it... Hmmm...

 

I sent an email to an AD last night asking him to inform me if a game I planned on covering is still on because of the incoming weather. I addressed the email by his first name, as I did a few weeks ago in a similar email. He (a new AD in his mid-20s) responded to me this morning: "I don't think I can keep doing this if you keep calling me by my first name; it's Mr. So and So." When I emailed him a few weeks ago, he didn't say please call me Mr. So and So - he ended his email with his first name. He hasn't let me know if the game is still on, but it's currently a downpour right now so I think I have my answer.

I addressed him by his first name because he's a distant cousin of mine and went to school with his older brothers.

 

Wow! Someone has a power trip! LOL

 

I would point out that he signed his e-mail with his first name. I would also emphatically point out that you’re not one of his teenage students.

 

Fuck him all the way, and go in dry.

 

"Dear Jack: This is not a class system, and I am not one of your students. We are peers in the community, working toward a common cause: to get news of your athletes and your athletic programs online and in the paper. Also, there is no need to address me as a Mr., either, but please respect your elders. Always respect your elders. ... Anyway, see you on the field, Jack."

 

I wouldn't give two shits if he DID use "Mr." in his email signature, or "King of the Realm," for that matter. You and he are equals, despite how much fist-pounding this guy wants to do about it. It's Hey, Firstname." And forget the distant cousin; he could be another life form or from another planet, and it'd still be "Firstname."

If I were you, I'd obliquely make a huge deal about his request to be addressed as "Mr." I'd sidle up to him the next time I saw him and tell him what a cool joke you thought it was that he wanted to be known as "Mr." And I'd bring it up about ...oh, every god damned time I saw this guy.

Some people ...

 

I mentioned in the stringer thread a little bit of my situation. Was passed over for SE gig, but still affiliated with paper as I do layout through the office for two other papers in the chain. New SE and FT are frankly doing a bang-up job. But I digress.

Since I've been in the sports community and at the shop for 8 years, I get all the complaints from local college SID. Not just on his school, but all sports coverage in the paper. Names butchered, city and school names wrong, etc. It's almost a daily occurrence. Oh joy....