Small Town Newspaper Bloopers

[Barb Bouldrey]

When we pastored in Iberia, MO for 15 years, the local newspaper came out once a week. It had pages of everyone's "news." It reported each church's Sunday activities and announcements.

I wanted to be a proofreader for that newspaper. I enjoyed reading the paper just to catch the errors.

Here are a few of my favorites:

When reporting on a local car accident the newspaper reported:
"No one was hurt in the trash."

When reporting on the music at First Baptist Church, it said:
The choir sang "Up From the Gravy He Arose."

When printing a photo of the Valedictorian of the Class of 92, it said in the caption:
"John W---, Valedictorian of the Ass of 92."

And one week someone switched paragraphs in side-by-side columns and had John singing at the First Christian Church one Sunday while that pastor preached at our church.

What memories.

LOL

Barb

[Gina Stevenson]

That Baptist church sang that Easter song the way I understood it as a kid, but for one word: "Up from the Gravy [He] Arose" ... I understood it without an extra "He" ... the "-vy" was in place of the "He" in my childhood version. :laughing

[Joel Merrill]

We have a paper like that. It is owned by a person in another state who owns a bunch of small town papers. They keep telling about all the awards they've won but they are full of typo's.

One story they did really took the cake. I'm an airplane nut as many of you know. There was a fly-in at a near by airport for an antique airplane called an "Ercoupe." It is really an interesting airplane. Back in the 30's, some airplane designers thought that someday everyone would own an airplane just like they owned a car. The Ercoupe was designed to be a plane for the average man. They were safe, fast and easy to fly. You could buy them from places like Montgomery Wards and Macy's Menswear. Most of them were made in 1946.

So we had this fly-in at that small town airport and there were around 30 Ercoupes there. They are a different looking airplane. They have a double tail, tricycle landing gear and the wing is at the bottom of the fuselage. Besides the 30 Ercoupes, there was one (1) Piper airplane. They don't look anything like an Ercoupe. They have a single tail, different style landing gear and the wing is on top. The brilliant reporter went to the airport and ignored the 30 planes that were all the same model and took a picture of the one Piper. Then he printed a very short little article that proved he knew nothing about these planes. He completely missed an opportunity to write a very interesting article. I was there and even got a free ride in one of the Ercoupes. He probably could have got a ride too.

I attached a photo of a Piper I got from the Internet and a photo of the Ercoupe I flew in.

Joel

[Mike Wooldridge]

Nice pics! Here's a site (http://www.ercoupe.com/toc.htm) you might like. The 'Coupe is a cool airplane. A man in my church has one he might want to sell. Wanna buy an airplane, Joel?

[Joel Merrill]

Nice pics! Here's a site (http://www.ercoupe.com/toc.htm) you might like. The 'Coupe is a cool airplane. A man in my church has one he might want to sell. Wanna buy an airplane, Joel?

Cool Site :basic01 What I want to do and can afford to do are often two different things. I would love to have one but I would have to learn to fly and get my pilot's license first. Airplanes are toys for the rich. I'll stick to my models and flight simulator.

Do you know about www.airliners.net? (http://www.airliners.net?) They have over a million photos on file of almost everything that flies plus a lot of other aircraft related stuff. I spend a lot of time on that site.

Joel :fav12

[Peggy Gray]

The same guy must own our local newspaper. They print it up, then just toss a handful of apostrophes at it and let them land where they may.

Recently a rather large headline said: "Rapid Racoon Discovered in Orleans County".

[Gina Stevenson]

The same guy must own our local newspaper. They print it up, then just toss a handful of apostrophes at it and let them land where they may.

Recently a rather large headline said: "Rapid Racoon Discovered in Orleans County".

Boy, he must've really been fast, being given a whole headline re his rapidity! :basic05 However, if he ever catches up with you, you might need to get those rabies shots! That is weird ............. :rolleyes:

[Glenda Harvey]

I frequently stay up on Monday nights just to catch Jay Leno's "Headlines"
I think it's the funniest thing he does. You should send some of the bloopers from your paper in to him. He would probably read them on the air.

[David Pettigrew]

Ahh, small town papers. How I miss ours in Woodruff County, Arkansas. We had a woman who wrote a weekly column called "Tanya's Tidbits." It was the first thing everyone read, because she named names. One week she talked about going to the bathroom at the local grocery store, sitting down, and reading all the names on the stall wall, and being shocked that she knew so many of them.

When the county sheriff wouldn't do anything about a stray dog killing her chickens, she devoted several columns to how inept he was, and threatened to run against him.

About every three months, she would switch churches, and write a column about how she had finally "found her church." Oh, how the Holy Spirit would move in that church. Then, in about another three months, something would make her mad, and she'd find another church and write "I've never felt the Holy Spirit like I do in this church."

Occasionaly, someone would write a letter to the editor complaining about her column. She'd get in a huff and write something like "This is my last column." Then, in a couple of weeks, she'd be back, saying something to the effect of "So many people told how my column led them to Jesus, I decided to keep writing."

Her demise came about because she also played in a local yocal country and western band. A huge controversy arose over whether her band or another local yocal band would get to play at the senior citizens center dance. It played out in her column, of course, where she disparaged the leadership of the senior center, who would be so short sighted as to not schedule her group. Well, you don't mess with the senior center in Woodruff County, AR. Someone slashed her tires. That was her last column.

The paper wasn't nearly as fun after that.

[John Kennedy]

That Baptist church sang that Easter song the way I understood it as a kid, but for one word: "Up from the Gravy [He] Arose" ... I understood it without an extra "He" ... the "-vy" was in place of the "He" in my childhood version. :laughing

That reminds me of the quartet I once heard at a funeral. They were singing "Oh, that will be glory for me....". In the refrain the phrase 'glory for me' is repeated several times. Unfortunately it was coming out 'Oh, that will
be CHLOROFORM ME, CHLOROFORM ME, CHLOROPHORM ME....'.

[David Pettigrew]

That reminds me of the quartet I once heard at a funeral. They were singing "Oh, that will be glory for me....". In the refrain the phrase 'glory for me' is repeated several times. Unfortunately it was coming out 'Oh, that will
be CHLOROFORM ME, CHLOROFORM ME, CHLOROPHORM ME....'.

I've sat through a lot of quartets when I've wanted to cry out the same thing.

[Joel Merrill]

BenJamIN Bristow posted this years ago. I thought it was worth posting again.

The following is an ad from a newspaper that appeared four days in a row - the last three hopelessly trying to correct the first day's mistake.

MONDAY:
For sale: R.D. Jones has one sewing machine for sale. Phone 948-0707 after 7 P.M.. and ask for Mrs. Kelly who lives with him cheap.
TUESDAY:
Notice: We regret having erred In R.D. Jones' ad yesterday. It should have read "One sewing machine for sale cheap. Phone 948-0707 and ask for Mrs. Kelly, who lives with him after 7 P.M."
WEDNESDAY:
Notice: R.D. Jones has informed us that he has received several annoying telephone calls because of the error we made in the classified ad yesterday. The ad stands correct as follows: "For sale -- R.D. Jones has one sewing machine for sale. Cheap. Phone 948-0707 after 7 P.M. and ask for Mrs. Kelly who loves with him."
THURSDAY:
Notice: I, R.D. Jones, have no sewing machine for sale. I intentionally broke it. Don't call 948-0707 as I have had the phone disconnected. I have not been carrying on with Mrs. Kelly. Until yesterday she was my housekeeper, but she has now quit.

Joel