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4A Daily News – Friday, March 9, 2012 Opinion Why you love grammatical errors in the DN D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes let- ters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All let- ters must be signed and pro- vide the writer's home street address and home phone num- ber. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submit- ted will be considered for publi- cation. Letters will be edited. Letters are published at the discretion of the editor. Mission Statement We believe that a strong com- munity newspaper is essential to a strong community, creating citizens who are better informed and more involved. The Daily News will be the indispensible guide to life and living in Tehama County. We will be the premier provider of local news, information and advertising through our daily newspaper, online edition and other print and Internet vehi- cles. The Daily News will reflect and support the unique identities of Tehama County and its cities; record the history of its com- munities and their people and make a positive difference in the quality of life for the resi- dents and businesses of Tehama County. How to reach us Main office: 527-2151 Classified: 527-2151 Circulation: 527-2151 News tips: 527-2153 Sports: 527-2153 Obituaries: 527-2151 Photo: 527-2153 On the Web www.redbluffdailynews.com Fax Newsroom: 527-9251 Classified: 527-5774 Retail Adv.: 527-5774 Legal Adv.: 527-5774 Business Office: 527-3719 Address 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080, or P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 We strive to put out some 50,000 words each day in the Daily News. Sometimes there's a misplaced comma, misspelled word or even a missing word. It comes with the territory. What is truly surprising is the vigor with which some readers will point out our errors. I should say, it was surprising until I read a book a couple of years ago called "Stuff White People Like." Listed at No. 99 was Grammar. It put into per- spective a phenomenon I had noticed since getting into the public writing business. For most of you a mistake is just that. For some it is cause for indignation. It is cause for call- ing the so-called editor and making a show out of the fact you caught the error when the editor didn't. It's a good feeling that suggests you are far better qualified to fill the position. Finding errors in others' work makes us feel good – heck, that may be why I chose to make a career of it. But the joy this brings us is directly pro- portional to the level of esteem to which we hold the publica- tion, writer or editor — a fact very humorously illustrated in the aforementioned book. Some notable examples include a woman who called when an article listed the city in the south of our county as Com- ing. We use text recognition software to put printed docu- ments into the system. The tech- nology is amazing, but not per- fect. Hence, the "rn" in Corning came out as an "m." What's worse, coming is a word that won't trip spell check. "Don't you know that the city's name is Corning and not Coming?," the reader implored. Or course I do. It's the sec- ond largest of three cities in the county I've been covering for four years – I know how it's spelled. But that wasn't her point. She found the mistake and I missed it, and she needed to rub it in. Another came when I wrote the sports tease on the front page, as I do most days. The Ana- heim Angels were fac- ing the Oakland A's and I wrote Angles. Again, spell check couldn't save me. My bad, but the caller was quite delighted at hav- ing caught it. Finally, I get chal- lenged weekly on the Oxford Comma, an obscure grammatical rule that seems to apply everywhere but newspapers. We all look for mis- Chip Thompson 545 Diamond Ave. takes. I find them frequently and most of you, I hope, find them occasionally. Before you get too worked up, though, remember we are on the same team. It's just that sometimes we fumble and lots of people see our work. I'll finish with a story from a couple of newspa- pers ago. My editor forwarded an email to the entire news- room from a reader who wondered where he had found the so- called writers who produced such shod- dy work. She went on and on about how we shouldn't have gotten past high school English due to our inability to correctly use the written word. My favorite co- worker noticed, and replied as such, that the reader throughout the note had referred to "gram- mer." Chip Thompson can be reached at 527-2151, Ext. 112 or by email at editor@redbluffdailynews.com. Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Jim Nielsen (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 6031 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 319-2002; Fax (916) 319-2102 STATE SENATOR — Doug LaMalfa (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 3070 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 651-4004; Fax (916) 445-7750 GOVERNOR — Jerry Brown, State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 558-3160; E-mail: gover- nor@governor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Wally Herger (R), 2595 Cean- othus Ave., Ste. 182, Chico, CA 95973; 893-8363. U.S.SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 393-0710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (510) 286-8537. Fax (202) 224- 0454. Messing with the given name Commentary I am a great fan of the late essayist Christopher Hitchens. English born and American adopted, he wrote for Vanity Fair, Slate and The Atlantic, in addition to author- ing books on Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine and George Orwell. Cambridge and Oxford educated, he was a grammarian par excellence…and has inadvertently rescued me from the clutches of critics such as C. Larimer. The latter maintained that I have an aversion to the nickname "Bob" and have instructed user of same to cease and desist. That's not how I reclaimed the name "Robert," but it is germane to what Mr. Hitchens avows when he writes that he has resisted the nickname "Chris" because he "objected to his name being circumcised." Exactly. Just the way I feel about the fore- shortened "Bob." When someone as erudite as Christopher Hitchens lays it on the line, I feel vindicated when following suit. Har- rumph! *** If active people, reluctantly finding themselves reduced to using a cane, waste valuable time trying to find where they last put the damn thing. The missus dubbed mine "Herb "and we are often on the hunt for that elusive fellow. *** We spoke months ago of a splendid way to support the State Theatre for The Arts. Certain areas of the building are being named in behalf of donors...the lobby in memory of the late Sydney Lindauer comes to mind. It was therefore suggested that a restroom therein might sport the name of a popular columnist, for example. If one thinks that might not be in good taste, I refer you to the "Falik Men's Room" at Harvard Law School named in honor of 1971 Har- vard Law grad William Falik who donated $100,000 to claim the lavatory. The Univer- sity of Pennsylvania has a bathroom with a sign on a wall reading "This relief you are now experiencing is made possible by a gift from Michael Zinman." Just a thought. *** A reminder: The off the wall and over the top comedy team of Merry, Standish and Allen will be doing their outrageous act as a fund raiser for the State Theatre For The Arts on Saturday. If you take along your elderly parents, you might turn their hearing aids off so they won't have a stroke. *** Statistics are mind numbing but note that cur- rently 1 in 6 U.S. citizens are Latino and 1 in 4 is the ratio of babies born in the U.S. who are Latino. Today they compose 16 percent of registered voters. By 2050 this number will rise to 30 percent...a number that can easily influence elections. Candidates for public office might be well advised to start printing "Habla Espanol" on their calling cards And speaking of numbers, 32 percent of traffic fatalities involve drunk driving and 31 percent involve speeding, but the fasting ris- ing factor is now distraction. When we were young, our greatest driving distraction was the opposite sex. Now in our golden years, there must be an equally commanding rea- son...but darned if I know what it would be? Politics? The Economy? Buster Posey's leg? *** A University of California study report suggests that upper class individuals are much more likely to partake in unethical behavior than the more financially deprived. This should not be all that surprising. One experiment indicated owners of the priciest cars were 4 times as likely to cut off drivers of less expensive cars...and pedestrians try- ing to exercise their right of way were more likely to be threatened by expensive car dri- vers. But the findings I like best is that the rich are more likely to pocket extra change handed to them in error, to cheat to win a prize and even take candy from a baby. Of course, maybe that's how folks get rich in the first place. *** Last week's quiz was answered by N.Rick who reported the name of the hero- ine in the film King Kong was Ann Darrow, that Michael Collins stayed behind while Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin Jr. walked on the moon, but she thought Calvin Robert Minch I Say Borel was the jockey who won the Triple Crown twice when my sources say it was Eddie Arcaro. This week's quiz: What is "floride," an electric train traveling at 95 miles per hour into a 95 mile an hour head wind will cause the smoke to blow in which direction, and the 15th of the month is referred to as the "Ides of March." Ides in Latin means? *** An attorney friend...yes, a friend...I have a plethora of attorney friends. Any- how, he told me of a client who is buying up a lot of land in California. He is buying much of it for the water rights. This should tell you something about the future when water may be of more value than oil. *** The DN searches old issues of the paper for their 90 Years Ago feature. It was there- fore odd that the high winds we experienced locally on the 29th of February of this year, evidently occurred on the same date in 1922. My father would have experienced it back then as it battered his first grocery store on Walnut Street. *** A Jewish woman was on a plane when she said to the businessman in the next seat, "You're Jewish aren't you?" The man replied, "No, madam, I am not." She persisted, "Yes you are, you are Jew- ish." Once again he disavowed that he was Jewish. However, when she continued her questioning, to shut her up, he said, "O.K. Have it your way. I am indeed Jewish." "Funny," she said. "You don't look Jew- ish." Robert Minch is a lifelong resident of Red Bluff, former columnist for the Corning Daily Observer and Meat Industry magazine and author of the "The Knocking Pen." He can be reached at rminchandmurray@hotmail.com.