Writer gets no compassion on foul up

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January 13, 2010

Anonymous The News Courier Wed Jan 13, 2010, 12:03 PM CST

The caller began by thanking me for running her organization’s meeting notice each month in our Limestone Ledger.

But Maralyn Cox, who submitted the notice for Positive Look Support Group, told me I needed to make a correction on this month’s published notice.

She explained that in the interest of streamlining the flyer she mails to members and the newspaper each month, she had eliminated the refreshment or lunch description in recent months.

However, this month she had included the lunch menu because the support group is having a birthday party for a 94-year-old member.

She also made a brief notation of “Musical Entertainment” above the menu items.

Maybe my mistake was caused by neurons misfiring, but maybe it was the result of observing over the years the trend of entertainers to call their bands or acts food names, i.e., Red Hot Chili Peppers, Vanilla Ice, Meat Loaf, Cream, Cake, The Cranberries, Bananarama, Smashing Pumpkins, Phish (pronounced “fish’), Limp Bizkit, Uncle Kracker, Black Eyed Peas, Korn, Bread, Vanilla Fudge, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Taste of Honey, Fat Back Band, etc.

So, quite understandably, I published in the meeting notice for the Positive Look Support Group that “Musical Entertainment will be by ‘Soup and Crackers.’”

“We’re having soup and crackers for lunch, that’s not our entertainment,” explained Maralyn, giggling.

But having been in the newspaper game for nearly 30 years, I felt compelled to rationalize my mistake.

I showed Maralyn’s flyer to our photographer, Kim Rynders.

“See, Kim, ‘SOUP AND CRACKERS’ is all uppercased,” I said. “Wouldn’t you think that was a proper name of a musical group? If it were food, shouldn’t it be lowercased?”

Kim answered, “Don’t try to involve me in your screw-ups.”

Fellow reporter Jean Cole simply pursed her lips into a tight “O” and rolled her eyes in the other direction.

So here is my mea culpa, or if I’m to stick to my food thesis, my pie in the face; my rotten apple spoiling the whole News Courier barrel; my egg on my face; my making lemonade of lemons; my sour grapes jealousy of my younger co-workers who think their neurons remain too intact to make such a bonehead mistake.

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Karen Middleton

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Writer gets no compassion on foul up

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