It wasn’t a Freudian slip. Nor was it a potshot, wisecrack or malicious remark.
It was a typo. I know that because I made it. Spell Check didn’t catch it, because if it’s a word, right or wrong, Spell Check skates right by it.
I didn’t catch it when I proofed it, because by the time I proof Mirror copy, I know it too well.
Our crack team of proofreaders didn’t catch it either, and are as upset by their lapse as I am by mine.
I make lots of typos because though I’ve been typing most of my life, I’ve never learned how to type properly. I use only two fingers on one hand.
The typo I’m referring to appeared in an editorial headline. It should have said, “Firefighter Saves Beach Town from Self-Destruction.” It said, “Firelighter Saves Beach Town from Self-Destruction.”
The difference is enormous, absolute, however inadvertent.
The “firefighter” in question is Lamont Ewell, Santa Monica’s new City Manager, who has a long and distinguished record, having worked his way up from Compton firefighter to Oakland fire chief, on his way to becoming a City Manager – first of Durham, North Carolina, then San Diego and now Santa Monica.
We apologize first and foremost to Ewell, as well as to any readers who may have been baffled, bemused or bothered by our error -an extraordinarily stupid and inexcusable error.
Peggy CliffordEditor
