One of the worst days of my life

Was writing a headline, with about 90 seconds before deadline, on the local school system's SAT results. Changed subject and verb, changed them again and changed them for a third time while I tinkered with the headline.
Only ... one verb tense change never ... quite ... got ... done.
So here was the egregious grammatical error splashed in six columns across the front page about SAT scores ... from someone who not only was a product of that same school system but had also been STAR student as a senior in high school.
And most of my former teachers were alive and read the paper.

 

Jesus, I thought my shop was the only one that did this.

 

Newside copy editor once changed a "Negro Leagues" reference to "African-American" League and sent me a nastygram for being racist.

 

If that was one of the worst days of your life, you've lived a blessed life.

 

I'm sure -- and hope -- whoever saw the copy on the desk feels just as bad.

 

Did you send one back asking him if he got all of Mother Nature's plumbing cleaned?

 

How did the conversation go when you told him/her there was, in fact, a Negro League, and did you use the phrase "you dumbass" or just let that part go unsaid?

 

A paper in our area got on Leno for covering a wheelchair beauty pageant, and writing in the lede that Jane Doe "walked away with the crown."

I cringed. And laughed.

 

About 9 or 10 months into my first gig at a weekly, the other reporter and myself were making a few errors. Mispelled names, typos, one or two other things. Publisher started a "three strikes and your fired" policy, which when you think about it, was ridiculous.

It was for any error, not just screwing up, and the other reporter and I were writing about a dozen stories a week, plus doing layout. So mistakes were inevitable. Needless to say, I started looking for another job right away, and escaped after getting the first strike.

 

Same here. Our former ME was notorious about having those filled out, and I've had to fill out my fair share of them (just ask CKSportsKid, or whatever the hell his name is on here). One was for something that I typed up just as it was turned in. It was something for our weekly youth sports page, and I even showed the ME the paper the lady turned in to prove I was in the right. Still had to fill one of those damn sheets out, and re-run the photo or whatever the hell it was.

 

I used to work with a girl right out of journalism school who was supposed to write a preview story about the "Clinton County Fair" in Illinois. She did a simple search and found the first CLINTON COUNTY FAIR and wrote a story about it...Turns out it was Clinton County New York.

 

That's brilliant -- especially the nastygram.