Correction of the Year: Features Division

No one ever will.

 

You've got to know your audience

 

That's just what I was thinking. About six months went by between the writing and publishing?

I refused to quit doing stories on people who were turning 100 when I went to one guy's house and he soiled himself while we were talking and no one was around to check on him. I flt really bad for the guy, and myself.

 

Our paper ran an item about a resident's 100th birthday party last year and he died the day the item ran and it was in a section that hit the press in advance.

 

How do you refuse to quit doing something? Your boss said "Quit doing it!" and you write it anyway?

 

Nope. Came back and said there is no way I'm doing another one of these and told her what happened. I never did another one. But we didn't do them a lot anyway, so it wasn't a huge deal. Now if I was ordered to do so, I wouldn't get fired over the issue.

 

If it's a day or two between death and publication and the story is printed in advance, it's understandable. Just sucky luck. An explanation in the clarifications section would suffice.

But for this ... c'mon. A quick obit search by a writer or editor would have prevented this.

 

That's a great point. We need to connect with younger readers. Next time send the intern out to do a story on 16-year-olds who have been married for 67 years.

 

But they try just as hard as the 18-year-olds!

 

Ah, OK. So you refused to DO them, not refused to QUIT doing them.

I was confused.

 

I wish I could quit you, ancient, incontinent guy!

 

I thought, for a second, that the dog had died.