Oh, no I di'in't!!!

I usually don't discuss work on my blog, but this one is sort of funny horrifying.

I'm a newspaper copy editor. At best, I should prevent errors from getting in the paper. At worst, errors may slip by me. Under no circumstances should I be inserting errors into the paper.



See, the calendar listing is infinitely long, and it takes way too long to read it all every day. Usually, only a small amount is used, so I usually read about 50 inches and then put a whole bunch of paragraph returns to mark where I stopped reading. I assume that if the designer ends up needing more, he or she will tell me and I can read more.

For some odd reason, last Thursday I felt compelled to not only put the paragraph returns, but also a note, in live type, to the designer. It was about a dozen paragraph returns, then a note in all caps, then a dozen more paragraph returns. I thought there would be no way to miss it. But somehow, she didn't see the note and took out all the returns. And there it is, in the paper. Dear God. I don't know whether to laugh or to cry.

Those silly kids

I visited my best friend, Tamara's, third-grade class today to talk about being a copy editor. On my way, I stopped by the paper to grab some copies for the kids. As I handed them out, they were so thrilled that they acted like I gave them all Xboxes or something. I was so happy to see them get so excited about a newspaper.

I admit that I was kind of worried about what I would say to take up time. I wondered what could be more boring to a bunch of 8-year-olds than a lecture from a copy editor about double checking your work and being careful about spelling.

These kids were so full of questions that I never really even had time for that stuff. They had a zillion (yes, a zillion) questions about the paper and how everything worked. They were incredibly curious.

Some of my favorite questions included:
"How much do you make?" (I figured I should be honest; they're just kids)
"Well, how much is that a DAY?"
"How much does your husband make?"
"Are you the boss of anyone?" (No)
"Oh, so you're like the lowest person..."

One boy said he asks for the newspaper but his mom won't get it. She probably can't afford it, but I felt bad that he really is interested in reading the paper at that age and he can't get his hands on it.

Several teachers also attended and had lots of questions. One of them had a daughter in journalism school.

I had a lovely time and was thrilled that these kids were so interested in the newspaper and how it works. I felt like the most popular girl in school.