Sequim Gazette Editorial and Letters to the Editor
To ere is hyooman
Published on Wed, Mar 3, 2010 by Jim CaseyRead More Editorial
Murphy was an optimist.
The man who laid down the law, "Whatever may go wrong will go wrong," probably worked for a newspaper.
Consider this for a moment:
Every letter, every space, every piece of punctuation on every page of the Sequim Gazette started with a keystroke from the fingertip of some very fallible human.
Now count them all.
Uh, scratch that; you'd be at it all week. But I think you get the point. While the Gazette maintains its commitment to quality control, an occasional error still escapes our editors' and proofreaders' eagle eyes.
A-A+B = Yikes!
Then came Feb. 23.
I walked into the office a week ago to be told that "the press" (actually, the Kitsap Sun's press in Bremerton) had printed pages B-5 and B-6 instead of the A-5 and A-6 pages - in the A section.
That effectively amputated two stories' continuations from the front page - the Citizen of the Year Award and a bank scam that's gone viral among local phone subscribers.
The only good thing to savage from the debacle was that no one at the Gazette was at fault. But that doesn't mean blaming the press gang at the Sun lest I have to relive all my newspaperly bloopers.
To err is human; to forgive is simply smart.
Reprinting stories
We are setting things straight, however, by reprinting the Citizen of the Year story on page A-12 and an updated bank scam story on page A-8 even as North Olympic Peninsula cell and land line telephone subscribers are flooded with bogus messages that their bank accounts or credit cards have -
get this - been compromised or closed.
I've received five calls myself, four in English, one in Spanish. I'm waiting for one in Irish Gaelic, which probably will hit on March 17.
Meanwhile, we're always distressed when errors mar our best visual and verbal work.
I suspect, though, that Murphy also was an editor.
Changing the subject to changes
We continue tweaking the Gazette like tuning a car to run its best while getting the highest gas mileage.
With this issue, readers will notice that we have opened some more space for news and entertainment on our Comics page.
Other changes there may be forthcoming. Stay tuned.
Meanwhile, in the space below the crossword puzzle vacated by retiring film critic Rebecca Redshaw, you'll find other columnists, including Kitchen Korner writer Marian Platt, gardening columnist Beverly Hoffman and birdwatching expert Dave Jackson.
You'll also see familiar faces in new places starting this week on the A+plus section cover.
There we will anchor columns by Phil Castell on Medicare, Ruth Marcus on staying mentally healthy, Sequim Police Chief Bob Spinks, and Tom Montgomery and Melissa A. Coughlin on Sequim, Dungeness Valley and Clallam County history.
All these changes may be momentarily unsettling, but they are designed to retain our content while managing our space more efficiently.
Here are the rotations schedules:
A+plus section
Week 1: Phil Castell
Week 2: Ruth Marcus, Good Grief
Week 3: Robert Spinks, On The Beat
Week 4: Tom Montgomery, Did You Know?
Week 5 (March, June, September, December): James Hallett, Investment Corner
C section
Week 1: Marian Platt, Kitchen Korner
Richard Olmer, Discoveries
Week 2: Beverly Hoffman, Valley Gardens
Barbara Lloyd McMichael, The Bookmonger
Lorie Gilchrist, Veterans Corner
Week 3: Marian Platt, Kitchen Korner
Susan Sorensen, Diabetes and You
Richard Olmer, Discoveries
Week 4: Dave Jackson, Our Birds
Shelley Taylor, Dish on Dish
Week 5: Marian Platt, Kitchen Korner
Keep those letters coming
Meanwhile, in the wake of last month's avalanche of letters from readers for and against the Sequim School District levy, our offerings this week seem pretty scanty.
Some readers may know that the daily newspaper published east of us won't publish a letter if it's appeared in the Gazette and hesitate to send it to us.
Well, we don't care if a letter has been published in that daily newspaper, in Popular Mechanics or in Pravda, and we're not sure why anyone would restrict its publication.
No one should claim exclusivity to someone else's thinking. To do so is, well, kind of creepy.
Readers' letters - and outsiders' letters about people
and events in the Gazette's circulation area - deserve dissemination unless they're libelous, obscene, treasonous, bigoted or in horribly poor taste.
So start writing.
I can't imagine that you've all run out of opinions.
I certainly haven't.
Jim Casey is the editor of the Sequim Gazette. You can reach him - or reach out to him, as the spirit may move you - at editor@sequimgazette.com.
The man who laid down the law, "Whatever may go wrong will go wrong," probably worked for a newspaper.
Consider this for a moment:
Every letter, every space, every piece of punctuation on every page of the Sequim Gazette started with a keystroke from the fingertip of some very fallible human.
Now count them all.
Uh, scratch that; you'd be at it all week. But I think you get the point. While the Gazette maintains its commitment to quality control, an occasional error still escapes our editors' and proofreaders' eagle eyes.
A-A+B = Yikes!
Then came Feb. 23.
I walked into the office a week ago to be told that "the press" (actually, the Kitsap Sun's press in Bremerton) had printed pages B-5 and B-6 instead of the A-5 and A-6 pages - in the A section.
That effectively amputated two stories' continuations from the front page - the Citizen of the Year Award and a bank scam that's gone viral among local phone subscribers.
The only good thing to savage from the debacle was that no one at the Gazette was at fault. But that doesn't mean blaming the press gang at the Sun lest I have to relive all my newspaperly bloopers.
To err is human; to forgive is simply smart.
Reprinting stories
We are setting things straight, however, by reprinting the Citizen of the Year story on page A-12 and an updated bank scam story on page A-8 even as North Olympic Peninsula cell and land line telephone subscribers are flooded with bogus messages that their bank accounts or credit cards have -
get this - been compromised or closed.
I've received five calls myself, four in English, one in Spanish. I'm waiting for one in Irish Gaelic, which probably will hit on March 17.
Meanwhile, we're always distressed when errors mar our best visual and verbal work.
I suspect, though, that Murphy also was an editor.
Changing the subject to changes
We continue tweaking the Gazette like tuning a car to run its best while getting the highest gas mileage.
With this issue, readers will notice that we have opened some more space for news and entertainment on our Comics page.
Other changes there may be forthcoming. Stay tuned.
Meanwhile, in the space below the crossword puzzle vacated by retiring film critic Rebecca Redshaw, you'll find other columnists, including Kitchen Korner writer Marian Platt, gardening columnist Beverly Hoffman and birdwatching expert Dave Jackson.
You'll also see familiar faces in new places starting this week on the A+plus section cover.
There we will anchor columns by Phil Castell on Medicare, Ruth Marcus on staying mentally healthy, Sequim Police Chief Bob Spinks, and Tom Montgomery and Melissa A. Coughlin on Sequim, Dungeness Valley and Clallam County history.
All these changes may be momentarily unsettling, but they are designed to retain our content while managing our space more efficiently.
Here are the rotations schedules:
A+plus section
Week 1: Phil Castell
Week 2: Ruth Marcus, Good Grief
Week 3: Robert Spinks, On The Beat
Week 4: Tom Montgomery, Did You Know?
Week 5 (March, June, September, December): James Hallett, Investment Corner
C section
Week 1: Marian Platt, Kitchen Korner
Richard Olmer, Discoveries
Week 2: Beverly Hoffman, Valley Gardens
Barbara Lloyd McMichael, The Bookmonger
Lorie Gilchrist, Veterans Corner
Week 3: Marian Platt, Kitchen Korner
Susan Sorensen, Diabetes and You
Richard Olmer, Discoveries
Week 4: Dave Jackson, Our Birds
Shelley Taylor, Dish on Dish
Week 5: Marian Platt, Kitchen Korner
Keep those letters coming
Meanwhile, in the wake of last month's avalanche of letters from readers for and against the Sequim School District levy, our offerings this week seem pretty scanty.
Some readers may know that the daily newspaper published east of us won't publish a letter if it's appeared in the Gazette and hesitate to send it to us.
Well, we don't care if a letter has been published in that daily newspaper, in Popular Mechanics or in Pravda, and we're not sure why anyone would restrict its publication.
No one should claim exclusivity to someone else's thinking. To do so is, well, kind of creepy.
Readers' letters - and outsiders' letters about people
and events in the Gazette's circulation area - deserve dissemination unless they're libelous, obscene, treasonous, bigoted or in horribly poor taste.
So start writing.
I can't imagine that you've all run out of opinions.
I certainly haven't.
Jim Casey is the editor of the Sequim Gazette. You can reach him - or reach out to him, as the spirit may move you - at editor@sequimgazette.com.
Send a letter to the editor, click here.
Letters Policy
Your opinions on issues of community interest and your reaction to stories and editorials contained in your Sequim Gazette are important to us and to your fellow readers. Thus our rules relating to letters submitted for publication are relatively simple.- Letters are welcome. Letters exceeding 250 words are returned to the writer for revision. We strive to publish all letters.
- Letters are subject to editing for spelling and grammar; we contact the writer when substantial changes are required, sending the letter back to the writer for revisions. Personal attacks and unsubstantiated allegations are not printed.
- All letters must have a valid signature, with a printed name, address and phone number for verification. Only the name and town/community are printed.
- Deadline for letters to appear in the next publication is noon Friday. Because of the volume of letters, not all letters are published the week they are submitted. Time-sensitive letters have a priority.
- Letters are published subject to legal limitations relating to defamation and factual representation.
-
To submit letters, deliver to 147 W. Washington St., Sequim; mail to P.O. Box 1750, Sequim, WA 98382; fax to 360-683-6670 or e-mail editor@sequimgazette.com
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