I hate mistakes

I really hate mistakes. Especially when they're mine. And this was a week with mistakes.

Let me back up slightly. Every summer, UNL's summer advanced reporting class comes to Seward for two weeks around the Fourth of July. We (the paper) have projects for them to work on, writing stories and taking pictures for some of the bigger sections coming up, and they help us cover the Fourth. This year that was especially helpful due to, shall we say, staffing issues.

As the "liaison" between the newsroom and the students, one of the things I stress is the importance of checking names and facts before stories are finished. It never hurts to make that extra phone call, just to double check the spelling of a name or any other fact that might be included.

Well, I didn't make that phone call. I should have. So in one of my stories this week I've got the name of a new art installation wrong and the names of its designers wrong. And, of course, the story was on the front page. Do as I say, not as I do, right? I guess if I'm going to mess something up, I might as well really mess it up.

There's not much I can do to fix it at this point. It's out there for all the world to see. Most people may not realize it's wrong, but that doesn't matter. We'll run a correction in next week's paper, and since I have a column next week, I'll probably write about the art piece and its dedication. At that point, I'll point out my mistakes and make sure I've got names right. But still.

I just really hate making mistakes.