Boy, do they regret it!

December 14, 2006 7:10 PM

Regret the Error's '06 roundup of the year's best corrections range from proper nomenclature when describing decanter aficianados to how many eggs Queen Elizabeth lays. All the mistakes fit to print.
posted by Bromius (12 comments total)

I've never felt as much respect and admiration for Queen Elizabeth as I feel now. Don't take this moment from me.
posted by lekvar at 7:27 PM on December 14, 2006

Most Unfortunate Ad/Edit Placement

From a report in The Australian: “A GERMAN newspaper [Landeszeitung Lueneburg] has apologised for accidentally placing a utility company advertisement for ‘the gas of tomorrow’ inside a full-page story on the Nazi killing of Sinti (Gypsy) people in Auschwitz concentration camp.”

That's going to be a hard one to top.
posted by Mitrovarr at 8:21 PM on December 14, 2006

RE Queen Liz- it all fits in to place. Her offspring's tiny brains, Charles' obsession with plants and the Queen Mother's longevity (maybe Royal Jelly is actually gin?)
posted by Gratishades at 8:51 PM on December 14, 2006

I dunno, Mitrovarr — I think 2005's E. coli-laced beef panties is pretty cherce.
posted by rob511 at 9:03 PM on December 14, 2006

That one (Queen Elizabeth) is going up on my wall. Classic.
I like this one too:
A correction in this column Thursday about a June 14 Taste section recipe for French coconut pie incorrectly suggested that the recipe called for a pint of vodka. The accompanying recipe for homemade vanilla extract uses the vodka. The pie recipe then calls for one tablespoon of extract. Here’s the corrected recipe for vanilla extract, adapted from Lacy Smith’s "Sugar Daddy’s Treats”: Drop one vanilla bean in a one-pint bottle of vodka, and six months later, you have vanilla extract.
Nice post!
posted by PercussivePaul at 9:16 PM on December 14, 2006

A headline on Page One on Saturday should have made clear that Oregon Health & Science University will be studying the effects of meth, not cooking it.

Wonder on what page that correction to a front-page headline showed up. Probably wasn't a front-page headline the 2nd time.

Thanks for posting this; it's one of the more fun end-of-year recaps. And don't forget the 2006 Plagiarism/Fabrication roundup.
posted by mediareport at 10:09 PM on December 14, 2006

I find my self curiously turned on by the phrase 'ground beef panties'. So glad I shared that.
posted by econous at 10:22 PM on December 14, 2006

You know, if Michael Richards had issued an error correction ...
posted by dhartung at 10:30 PM on December 14, 2006

…we incorrectly used the word “pubic” instead of “public”…

…40 percent of women say, ‘We both love any and all animals’ when asked, ‘How kinky are you?’

…the paper would not be running a correction because it’s impossible to define what is real and what isn’t when it comes to wrestling…

…a mistake worthy of lifelong shame, somehow confusing Neil Simon with Eugene O’Neill…

…it was incorrectly stated that she ate “Twenty-six, seven, eight thousand calories a day.” The correct figures are six, seven, eight thousand…

…pot growers had tapped into an irrigation line… to grow the cannibals…

…the Sabres outshit the Senators 32-28…

It was a very good year.
posted by wendell at 10:34 PM on December 14, 2006

…the Sabres outshit the Senators 32-28…

Actually, that one's not a typo: come playoff time, the Sens can't even win a shitting contest.

*rimshot*

Also, this grotesque distortion in the National Post was a beaut.
posted by gompa at 11:38 PM on December 14, 2006

An editorial in Friday’s paper incorrectly stated that Florida Cresswell, a candidate for state representative in the 28th District, was convicted in 1999 of battery and stealing Tupperware. In fact he was convicted of stealing a battery from a van as well as Tupperware that was inside the van.

This one's my absolute favorite. It's a small and a big error at once!
posted by clevershark at 7:19 AM on December 15, 2006

The introduction of "Queen Elizabeth" twice to a story about bees looks like the result of an automatic style guide replacement, or misuse of a word processor's "suggest an alternative" feature.

The story was clearly intended to have the phrase "the queen" twice, and a style guide probably would have suggested "Queen Elizabeth" as the preferred alternative, on the assumption that it referred to her and she's not "the queen" to everyone.

Amazing stuff. This is what you get when you try to save money by replacing editors with interns on the basis of the mistaken belief that word processors do most of the work.
posted by George_Spiggott at 9:34 AM on December 15, 2006