Paso Monica

In my six years of writing articles and editing newspapers, I do not recall having made a glaring factual mistake. I'm sure i've made plenty that I wasn't called on, a couple I was called on that i'm not remembering, and some that were caught before the story went to print; neither reporters nor editors are perfect. My sophomore year in high school I recieved a letter after my very first article was published in the baby beginning journalism paper, a letter that the teacher pretended was bad but was actually good, thanking me for a good job my article.

This morning when I walked into work I was told that I shouldn't go to Santa Maria because i'll be lynched... apparently in my recent article I wrote Santa Monica instead of Santa Maria and Robles instead of Paso Robles. A stupid mistake that no one in the newsroom, including me, caught. Obviously not an oversight in my questioning, but a blaring typo that, in hindsight, seems absolutely impossible. However it got there, whether it was a brain freeze or prompted by alien influence, that's what it read. Granted, in six years I probably won't remember this mistake either, because the involved parties didn't storm the office or wake me up in the middle of the night screaming in my ear, but nevertheless. It's something to think about while I write and edit.