Whew! A reminder of the days of permanent ink on paper
So I made an embarrassing error last night. I ripped off a quick post on the “obscene juxtaposition” of images on news web sites. There, next to the images of horrific suffering in Haiti, were those of the banking fat cats on Capitol Hill, making self-serving excuses for wrecking this country’s economy a year ago. I suggested that perhaps they could make amends for their greed by sending their megabucks bonuses to help rebuild Port-au-Prince. Then I punched publish and drove off to pick up my wife.
When I returned two hours later, I noticed I’d goofed. I’d somehow written “country’s” in the lead as the plural for “country”. Yikes. True/Slant usually makes it easy to fix such errors. But last night, the publishing software froze. I couldn’t fix my mistake — at 7 or 8 or 9 or 10 or 8 a.m. (You get the picture. Just a little OCD.)
The error is now fixed, thanks to an assist from the folks at True/Slant. (The operating system, from what I can tell, is as well.) But the whole experience reminded me once more both of the need to slow down and of the extraordinary gift the blogosphere provides for self-publishing.
Even if it had cost nothing, and it didn’t, publishing a personal newsletter would never have been an option in my life. Anything approaching perfection, alas, continues to elude me.
Blogs are sometimes too fast; thank goodness, they’re also usually fixable.
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I found that my many years as a really good speller (and professional editor) have gone by the wayside. Misspelled homophones especially seem to be eluding me more and more often as I get older. So I really do sympathize. Now, if True/Slant would offer the same courtesy of allowing corrections to it’s readers, I for one would be grateful.
See what I mean? I meant to write “… to ITS readers.” geez.
In response to another comment. See in context »I’m with you on that one. I’ve made comments on others’ blogs and wished I could get in to edit them. I’m not sure why True/Slant doesn’t allow it. As for age and detail editing acuity, I think there may be something to that as well. On the other hand, I believe we see patterns better as we get older. So I’m not ready to cede everything!
Jerry,
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen journalists, editors, copy editors and teachers — friends I know are sticklers for accuracy, spelling, etc. — dash off items that contain similar glitches. And I’ve been appalled more than once when I realize I’ve done the same….There’s something about this format. …
Maureen