Becky Holland - Early Edition, I goofed

Becky Holland

AMERICUS — Gary Hobson was a regular Chicago stockbroker. One day, his wife dumped him and he was forced to move into a hotel room. The next morning, at 6:30 a.m., a mysterious yellow cat showed up at his front door with tomorrow’s edition of the Chicago Sun-Times. From that day on, his life(and those around him) was never the same. At first, a little doubtful, Gary started to try saving people’s lives and stop disasters from happening. With the help of his friends, Chuck and Marissa, Gary became a man with a mission, even though he doesn’t know why or how the paper gets to him every morning.

It was the “Early Edition.”

Early Edition, the CBS television show, premiered on September 28, 1998, and ended on May 27, 2000.

Or so you thought.

In Sunday’s edition of the Americus Times-Recorder, you got a little taste of an early edition with the ‘predictions’ of a successful Block Party, which is to be held on August 20, in Executive Editor, Beth Alston’s business column.

It is just one more way that proves how important a resource that your local newspaper is to you.

Not only do newspapers provide an outlet for community members to voice their opinions on subjects in letters to the editor(if you want to send one, e-mail me and I will tell you where to send them or look on our page 4A. We love your letters!), but newspapers provide information and education concerning schools, churches, politics, calendar of events, and now, predictions of the success of a community events.

Did you know that newspapers could do that?

... silence ...

Okay, so I can not tell a lie, especially with a picture of my mom and dad sitting right in front of me on my desk ...

I goofed. Not only do newspaper reporters/desk editors write stories, take pictures, etc ..., we are the ones who design(or follow a design) and layout the pages of the newspaper on a computer, then send them to be printed to a press.

And sometimes ... goofs can be made ... No excuses, though again a zillion of them could be made, but our Executive Editor, Beth Alston, was working a head, and placed a column for next week in the files to be used next Sunday.

She was so sure that the Block Party was going to be a success(which makes me think, because she has not been wrong in the past, maybe, just maybe, our newsroom department head must have some direct line somewhere to some higher up that controls the outcomes of events) that she penned a column.

And I ... I goofed ... Two columns in the same file with the same name, but at the end of each, a different date, and I grabbed one, and went with it ... skimming through it as I put it on a page.

All was well Saturday in the publication process, and then I was on the phone with Robert Griffin, our staff writer(who reminds me just a bit of Jimmy Olson from Superman), who said, “Did you use the wrong column for Beth’s business section?”

Actually, I am not exactly sure what his precise words were. It was hard to understand through his guffaws and laughter.

Hanging my head in shame, even the nuzzling of the “boy”(dog-Toby) couldn’t make me feel better. There really weren’t any excuses. I goofed.

But I had you going for a minute there, didn’t I?

You really thought your old favorite, the Americus Times-Recorder had gone one step beyond your expectations and was predicting the future.

Or either time had gone by so fast that the week had just zoomed by before you knew it..

Or maybe not, huh?

Give a girl’s hopes and imaginations a chance, would you? Oh, well ,dear readers, dear supervising editor, I apologize for the goof ... Moving right along and on to the next subject at hand ...

What are you shaking your head for? I see you there, holding the edges of the paper, and can see the frown forming on your face ..

Mistakes do happen, and yes, this newspaper has made several and while I have been here, I have been one of the main ones to make them. Mistakes can’t be taken lightly, especially when it goes in print for over 4000 people to see and read.

It is my belief that this very column space has been dedicated to a topic or two regarding mistakes that those in community service make.

Today though, there won’t be any excuses, any reasonings, or any quotes that can teach a lesson from mistakes or shifting of blame and won’t be any “throwing anyone under the bus,” for the early printing of the column.

No sense hiding it. I goofed.

But you know, (she writes with a big smile), USA Today blogged recently a list of newspaper mistakes, errors and embarrassments far more serious and far more funnier. So, I could resist sharing some of them. For no reason at all but to make you smile — okay, okay, to take the heat off of the “goof up”.

My favorite, and apparently, the favorite of the USA Today bloggers, was, one that appeared in The Guardian. "We misspelled the word misspelled twice, as mispelled, in the Corrections and clarifications column on September 26, page 30."

One of the year’s most coveted awards goes to none other than Dave Barry. Here’s how the famous humor writer chose to correct a misspelling he made in a column published by the Miami Herald:

“ In yesterday’s column about badminton, I misspelled the name of Guatemalan player Kevin Cordon. I apologize. In my defense, I want to note that in the same column I correctly spelled Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarak, Poompat Sapkulchananart and Porntip Buranapraseatsuk. So by the time I got to Kevin Cordon, my fingers were exhausted.”

So, even Dave goofs.

Mmm.

I like the idea of people thinking we are predicting the future. The Block Party will be held Thurday night downtown.



Becky Holland is the news and education editor of the Americus Times - Recorder and can be reached at becky.holland@gaflnews.com or by phone at 924-2751 ext. 1524. . In her columns, she writes about a variety of sundry things, including everyday, common-place items and events and even her canine, much to the chagrin of some , but itis all in fun and in hopes that someone, somewhere can relate. She accepts topic ideas for columns, though, that doesn’t mean she always will use them, it is all an inspiring moment - or her newsroom supervisor telling her to hurry up with a column. Feedback, negative and positive, is welcome.

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