A journalist's blunder

Just finished drafting this e-mail to a friend in Journalism school in Minnesota, and thought it worthy of re-posting. Enjoy:


AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH

...were my exact words at work today when I realized what a huge, stupid mistake I'd made.

I thought of you at that moment, because you're a fellow student of journalism, and in my first class in the J-school at Madison we were given a couple strict pointers. One that always stuck with me was "if you misspell the interviewee's name, you automatically fail the assignment." Luckily I haven't made that blunder...yet. But I do remember how relieved I was to receive my acceptance (e-mail) to the school. I think I told you this story: after submitting my writing samples and application to the school, I made the mistake of re-reading what I had submitted. Material that I had, of course, edited and re-edited until I was blind reading it. And not until a day or so after submitting it did I look back over and see that I had ended a sentence with a period, followed immediately by a comma.

AAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH

Today at my internship, I wrote an e-mail on behalf of my boss - the executive director of this non-profit law center - to be sent to all the congressional reps' staff members in Minnesota and the Dakotas. And a few key people who head similar organizations and are interested in attending an event we're planning. Anyway, big folks. The pressure was on. I had to write "like" the director, but also not be a bumbling idiot. (As you probably know, not all heads of organizations are the best writers. But their interns MAKE them great writers.) So I edited, re-edited and triple-edited this two-paragraph e-mail. I even called in another intern to proofread what I'd written - and he found TWO GLARING mistakes. So I re-re-re-read it and was SURE that it was absolutely tight. And sent it.

I immediately checked my e-mail, because I'd BCCed myself. There it was, in my inbox, bright and bold and new: an e-mail from the director...

..
Get this:
.....
............

WITH NO SUBJECT LINE.

So I leaned over my shoulder and let loose with a heart-wrenching "AUUUUUUUUUUGH!" ... right into the waist of my director, who had just returned from a lunch meeting and was approaching me to see how progress on the letter was coming.

*sigh*

I eagerly await the tale of YOUR most egregious writing biff.