I am humiliated. No. Maybe humiliated is too strong a word. Embarrassed: that’s a better word. Last week we had a technical glitch, see. One of our pages did something freaky (the more techno savvy people on my team tried to explain the science to me, but I forget what they said. I’m an English student, forgive me). Regardless, something happened and the page didn’t permanently save any editing changes that were made on it. So it was sent off to the printers, typos included. We were none the wiser. It was a freak, happens-once-a-blue-moon, accident. But this page happened to be the page on which we ran an article I wrote. An article on date rape. Maybe you read it? It had exactly three mistakes in, that were found and rectified, but that weren’t saved. The horror! Imagine: I am the editor. The one who is supposed to make sure there are no mistakes and an article I write myself isn’t completely perfect? How can anyone trust me to do this job? All I can say is: it was a legitimate glitch in a file that somehow got corrupted and I apologise humbly.
I learnt a new word last week: Pikunnussija. It’s Finnish, and it describes someone whose “destiny it is to stamp out all punctuation mistakes at the cost of popularity, self-esteem and mental well-being.” You can imagine what seeing mistakes in the paper does to me, then? That, I hope, was punishment enough.
In other news: as I write, we are busy processing applications. I love this time of year, when we find and hire new people. It is always exciting to add fresh talent to the teams and see a new generation of journalists flourish. Of course, some people that apply make you wonder if they have any idea what a newspaper does. Or what a sentence is. Or what language is. Or they somehow think Perdeby publishes poetry. Shame. For the most part though, applications are of a high calibre and we’ll be interviewing candidates this week. If you’re one of the lucky victims, good luck.
I found a letter among the applications from a secret admirer. Whether it was aimed at me personally or the newspaper, or both, remains unclear. It did include a sketch of my face, so I’m going to assume I am at least a part-target. I’ve never had a secret admirer before. I’m not sure how to react. Do I assume that you want to kill me in a dark alleyway? Or buy me shiny presents? Or just mildly stalk me for a while? Am I just watching too much television? You’re not hiding under my bed right now, are you? No, I’m letting my imagination run away with me. Whoever you are, thanks for thinking the paper is awesome. I really appreciate it. I would also like to thank all the people who have written in over the last few weeks and shown appreciation for what we’re doing here. You guys rock and we love the love. Keep the feedback coming.
As usual, there are some interesting things I want to draw your attention to this week. The Jack Parow interview is a highlight, I think. We also explain the future of the SRC in some detail, so if you’re interested, give that a look. Then, take a quick glance at our article on how to throw a party on a budget. I really want to throw a “snow pants or no pants” party. If you do, please invite me. I don’t own snow pants, promise.
Now, who do you have to know to get a drink around here?
Beyers
Remember: you can mildly stalk me on Twitter @Perdebyeditor.
