I’m sure my pal Jeff will readily attest to the fact that running a small-town newspaper is beset with challenges of many kinds. You’re underpaid and overworked, and short on staff in every area…if, indeed, you even have a staff. There’s no backup when deadlines loom, and those deadlines just keep. on. coming.
So, I present the following in the spirit of “laughing with them, not at them,” which will be of little comfort to the new publisher of the Fort Stockton Pioneer, who surely had a smothering spell when the latest edition arrived and the page one headline seemed to be, well, lacking…
If there’s a silver lining to this scenario, it’s that if you’re going to accidentally omit a word in describing a verdict, it’s better to leave off the word they picked than the one immediately preceding it.
LOL, and not just at any small town newspaper, but THE small town newspaper that inspired your post!
Over the next day or two, there will be no end to the witty comments at the coffee clubs in Johnny Salinas’ steakhouse on Dickinson, or the Comanche Springs truckstop just off I-10 … I feel for the publisher, having committed a similar goof more than once … and experienced the good-natured teasing that followed.
Wouldn’t mind going back some morning … there are worse ways to start your day than some gathering of good ol’ boys, meeting over coffee and conversation.
It could be worse. Suppose the Commissioner were missing.
Commissioner Gonzalez found – not!
Perhaps the publisher knows Commissioner Gonzalez and just couldn’t bring himself to print out the full verdict.
Maybe the headline writer is a Star Wars fan. If they had a “movie party”, we’re talking the Prequel Trilogy followed by the Original Trilogy, and the bonus discs back to back.
Twelve hours of Yoda does strange things to a person’s grammar.
Perhaps they tried to interview him, but couldn’t get a hold of him.
“We searched and searched, but found him not.”
You guys are easily entertained, aren’t you? 😉
Let me put it this way:
Yes.