Ha Ha. Journalist makes a mistake. What an idiot!

Yeah, I write two columns a week, plus maintain a fulltime blog, plus write books and freelance on the side to try to pay the mortgage. Yes, it's more than a fulltime job. I've been at it for 20 years, writing about a broad range of topics as a reporter and columnist, and have very few corrections to show for it.

This particular column was written during a period of excruciating pain from a ruptured disc that will require surgery next week. No excuse, but perhaps a reason my usual fact-checking wasn't up to snuff. And uncharacteristically, nobody on our news desk caught it, either.

Since George provided no context for this horrific error, here is the gist: In a short item in a column in which I comment on the week's news, I made the mistake of using the word "conductor" to describe the person driving a train. Yeah, I knew better. I'm not an idiot. Common mistake, I learned, seeing the same word used on wire stories and also in the headline at the Washington Post, which broke the story about the texting. Still, no excuse. I corrected the error immediately, even calling to have an editor change the online version on a Sunday -- no small feat.

No one noticed that I had mislabeled the person operating the train except George, who I thanked for doing so and promised to immediately correct said error. Apparently he was too busy trumpeting his great discovery, and harumphing about cancelling his subscription, to even bother to respond to my messages.

(For the record: the "Metroline" error was one inserted by an editor. And my reference to a ban on texting was in reference to another story about the rail operator issuing an immediate ban for its own employees, not a law, as George scoffs.)

But glad y'all got such a hoot and whiff of superiority out of it. Anything we can do to help.

Ron Judd,
Underworked Columnist