There are days where I really balk at answering my phone because we’ve had something controversial in the newspaper and I just know I’m going to have someone calling to yell at me.
Though sometimes, and I’m convinced the universe does this just to keep me off-balance, it’s on those days that it just doesn’t end up happening. Or people call and they’re actually happy about the piece. I really appreciate those days.
But even more difficult to deal with are the ones that come as a surprise. Suddenly I’m getting an avalanche of calls about things I didn’t think were any big deal. When it comes out of left field like that and blindsides me, I’ll often hang up from the call, then think of all the cogent and intelligent things I should have said on the subject. Or how I should have responded to be more gracious about it. But, alas, I can’t turn back time.
Though sometimes the surprises aren’t necessarily bad. Take how many phone calls and emails I had to respond to this past week after last Friday’s crossword clues didn’t match the puzzle published in the paper. Now, we put out the puzzle page every week, but we’re never entirely sure how many people glance at it, how many people skip it and how many people do one or more of the activities.
So it was actually really heartening to know there are so many people out there who look forward to doing the crossword, and care enough about it to respond to the mistake. After the second or third call on Friday I decided to put the correct clues up on our website, and even emailed them to a few people who asked. I do understand how people feel about that. After all, I always do the Hocus Focus as I’m putting the page together. And every year my entire family looks forward to a certain giant Christmas crossword published by one of our national newspapers.
You’ve got to have those little things in life to look forward to, and I’m glad the Citizen can provide that to so many with our weekly puzzle page. Not to mention that keeping the brain active is something health experts recommend as we all get another year older annually (funny how that happens).
I also really appreciate how nice people were about it when they notified me of the error. Sometimes people can be needlessly nasty, but not this time.
But in spite of whatever brain stimulation I get, I can’t totally eliminate the very human inevitability of making mistakes. So just know, the next time there’s an error, I’ll do everything I can to fix it.
