We indeed had an incorrect headline on the front page Monday, suggesting the U.S. House approved the economic bailout, when in fact the story was about the House approving some procedural matter, prior to the vote.
It wasn’t an effort to predict the future, like the famous “Dewey Beats Truman” headline in the Chicago Tribune that tried to get a jump on the results of a presidential election.
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• Statistics show that teen pregnancy drops off significantly after age 25 (bet it drops off just as significantly after age 20).
• One-armed man applauds the kindness of strangers (and hopefully forgives lack of sensitivity by editor).
• Fish need water, Feds say (most kindergarteners know it too, though evidently the headline writer thought it news).
• Utah Poison Control Center reminds everyone not to take poison (worth remembering but do people really need a reminder?).
• Federal Agents Raid Gun Shop, Find Weapons (and what would you expect to find there?).
• Police: Crack Found in Man’s Buttocks (might be more newsworthy to know what man’s buttocks has no crack).
Included in this collection were some other interesting items, like the headline, “Alton Attorney Accidentally Sues Himself.” I sure wish I had the story that went with that headline. You know everyone read that item.
And there was a most interesting correction: “Due to incorrect information received from the Clerk of Court’s Office, Diane K. Merchant, 38 ... was incorrectly listed as being fined for prostitution in Wednesday’s paper. The charge should have been failure to stop at a railroad crossing...”
Don’t you know poor Diane went through a tough time between when the first item was published and the correction got in? And don’t you know the newspaper staff let out a huge sigh of relief when they realized the wrong info came from the clerk’s report?
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I wrote a few weeks back about an amazing number of coincidences involving the number eight related to the birth of a child that got reported by the Associated Press.
Good friend and fellow publisher, Steven Woody, with the Montrose (Colo.) Daily Press saw that Sweet Talk, and volunteered his own son, Will (I always liked his name!) was born 4/2/80 (4 X 2 = 8). He was born at 8:08 a.m. and weighed 8 pounds, even.
At the time, the Woody’s license plate featured an “8” noting how they lived in the Wyoming county designated eight. And at the time, Steve was the publisher of the Platte County (8) Record Times.
Later Will wore No. 8 when playing soccer and baseball.
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My special number for many years has been “9” though I can’t say for certain it’s a lucky number.
For years I delivered papers for the Bastrop (La.) Daily Enterprise on Route 9. At one time in Baton Rouge, I lived at 999 North Ninth Street.
Over the years it seems as if I had a number of connections with the number 9.
WILL CHAPMAN is publisher of The Daily Iberian.
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