The Duchess of Cornwall might have been somewhat surprised to read in an article that she is due to give birth next month. It is the Duchess of Cambridge who is expecting a baby.
June 2013
3 posts
The Maori placename Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamate aturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenua-kitanatahu is not quite as lengthy as we rendered it in a panel accompanying an article about very long words. Our spelling twice included a stray j – a consonant that does not appear in the Maori language.
The edition numbers printed in the newspaper were one number less than they should have been every day from 29 May to 4 June because the 28 May edition number was inadvertently repeated on 29 May.
May 2013
2 posts
Because of editing errors, an article on Thursday about a duo that has its first Top 10 single and its first No. 1 album on the Billboard album chart misstated its name at two points. As the article correctly noted elsewhere, it is Daft Punk — not Daft Puck or Daft Pink.
An interview with Saul Bellow’s son Greg said he was now 68, but also suggested he was 44 at the time of an incident that occurred in 1976. As at least one reader noticed, those figures did not add up. We now believe that Greg Bellow was born on 16 April 1944 and was 32 at the time of the incident in 1976; he was 68 at the time the interview was carried out, but was 69 by the time it was published.
April 2013
2 posts
Diary: Who was the quickest quick-change artist of them all? Bernard knows was amended because the original referred to speculations on whether Barbara Castle could have become Britain’s first prime minister. Britain’s first female prime minister, it should have said.
An article about eating mutton referred to the disastrous effects of the prolonged winter on sheep farmers and their livestock but said “resilient mutton are coping well”. A farmer points out that it is the sheep that are resilient; mutton is the meat that comes from them.
March 2013
3 posts
A Lost in Showbiz article about the actor Steven Seagal was removed from our website because it was based on a magazine article which was intended as fantasy.
Near homophone corner: “The Plain English Campaign led the criticism. ‘It’s nonsense,’ said Steve Jenner, spokesperson and radio presenter. ‘Where’s it going to stop. Are we going to declare war on comas, outlaw full stops?’”
An interview with Carrie Underwood asked the country music singer if she decided to become a vegetarian after seeing her parents castrate a cow. Unlikely. Only bulls can be castrated.
December 2012
1 post
Criminalise squatting in commercial premises, say Tory MPs was corrected because it said the occupation of residential properties with permission had been made a criminal offence; without permission, it should have said.
November 2012
5 posts
Ukip surfs wave of disillusionment with EU to hit new poll high was corrected because the original said 56% of voters would probably or definitely vote to leave the UK if a referendum were held. That should have been the EU, not the UK.
A report about the publication of records containing the identities of MPs’ landlords said they showed that the Conservative MP Mark Garnier was renting from a “Paul Smith Esq” although it was uncertain if he was the fashion designer of the same name. The designer Paul Smith has asked us to make clear that he is not Mark Garnier’s landlord.
A Shortcuts item about the enduring – and, for many, irritating – popularity of Gangnam Style, the pop song and video by the South Korean rapper Psy, said it was “like a virus that is immune to antibiotics”. A doctor writes to point out that all viruses are immune to antibiotics, which are used to treat bacterial infections.
Barbara Kingsolver’s novel Flight Behaviour describes a team of entomologists arriving in an Appalachian town to study a vast flock of butterflies. They were not etymologists as we had it in a review of the novel.
A Diary item said the Labour MP Denis MacShane was famously sacked from the BBC after he accused the Conservative politician Reginald Maudling of being a cook. Crook was the word he used.
October 2012
1 post
A television listing for the BBC programme Wartime Farm described it as recalling “the acute foot shortage of 1943”. That might have made an interesting programme, but this one was looking at a wartime food shortage.
September 2012
1 post
Following the publication of [“Just 100 cod left in North Sea”], the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has stated that there are “around 21 million mature cod in the north sea”. It says “there are a small number of cod over the age of 12 years old which has always been the case in the North Sea even when fished at lower levels in the 1950s and 1960s”.
August 2012
3 posts
C.W. Nevius’ column about Most Holy Redeemer banning drag queen performers incorrectly stated that entertainer Peaches Christ appeared at an event at the church’s hall with a dildo shaped like a crucifix. He did not appear at the event, nor does he use the prop.
Doreen Lawrence: ‘I got quite emotional. I thought: hold it together’ was corrected because a section of the taped interview with Doreen Lawrence was misheard and then wrongly transcribed, which led to a reference to Haile Gebrselassie’s dog. It should have been a reference to his daughter.
Ned Kelly’s remains to be returned to descendants was corrected because the original standfirst said Ned Kelly’s remains will be returned to his ancestors, when it meant descendants.
— The Guardian
June 2012
3 posts
Because of a production error, a piece about the Libor rate-fixing scandal at Barclays was published under the byline “Name Surname”; some readers correctly deduced from the accompanying picture of its author that it was by Nils Pratley.
Confessions of a recovering Objectivist was corrected because Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged is 1,200 pages long, rather than 1,200 words as the original said.
The Master Pattenmakers, rather than patternmakers, joined in a diamond jubilee celebration hosted by the livery companies of trades and professions. Pattens were a kind of undershoe which allowed wearers to walk through muddy unpaved streets and arrive clean-shod.
April 2012
2 posts
An article said a secret file compiled by British colonial officials in the 1950s included a list of Kenyans studying in the US, along with a note that the US state department had expressed concern about such students “falling into the wrong hands”. The report highlighted the fact that the name of Barack Obama, the father of the US president, topped the list. To clarify: his name headed the list only because it came first alphabetically.
Former editor and ex-ITV exec plotting Sunday tabloid launch was amended because the original said “ethnically cleansed” where “ethically cleansed” was meant.
March 2012
4 posts
Our Clare in the Community cartoon chose the unconventional course of celebrating St Patrick’s Day with images of the flag of Ivory Coast – orange, white, green. Ireland’s flag sequence runs green, white, orange.
In last Saturday’s Quiz, question 8 asked: “The Decepticons were whose enemies?” The answer given was Transformers. In fact, Decepticons are a species of Transformer, as are their enemy, Autobots – the right answer.
50 stunning Olympic moments No 18: Boris Onischenko cheats, GB win gold was corrected because the original referred to Boris Onischenko’s weapon as a sabre and subsequently as a foil. Onischenko was a pentathlete, and as such would have fenced with an épée.
Ten of the best: owls said that Old Brown, the owl in Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin, lives on an island in Windermere, when it should have said Derwentwater. It also said that Lord Sepulchrave (in Mervyn Peake’s Titus Groan) “goes mad and goes to live with the owls”, when in fact Sepulchrave is devoured by the owls that live in the Tower of Flints after losing his mind and coming to believe he is a “death owl”.
February 2012
7 posts
A roundup – Gaffes of the year – included this quote among its items: “Let’s raise a toast to Tom for organising the stag do, and if we’re perfectly honest, to the ideology and thought process of the Third Reich.” The roundup went on to say, “MP Aidan Burley didn’t say these words, but he did raise his glass to them at a stag do in France.” In fact, Aidan Burley had finished raising a glass to the first sentiment (ie toasting the organiser), and did not have his glass raised when the follow-up observation about the Third Reich was expressed.
A piece slipped in quoting a speaker as saying that orchestral conductor Sakari Oramo had a track record of “working with British museums”. The intended word was musicians.
With a story about the new pool complex at the Olympic Games site in east London, a picture caption referred to the complex’s designer, architect Zaha Hadid, as a man, which she isn’t.
Adele’s expected Brit awards underline success of Indie labels was corrected because it… said independent labels had “an unprecedented 25% share of the 113m albums sold in Britain in 2011”. This has been amended as “unprecedented” appears to be unjustifed.
Marseille’s Cité Radieuse damaged by fire was corrected because the original said that the Cité Radieuse is known affectionately as “the house of the madmen”. La maison du fada (singular) is better translated as “the crackpot’s house”.
A piece on the recent film The Iron Lady said Margaret Thatcher was “the first woman ruler of Britain since Elizabeth I”. Several readers questioned whether “Britain” was correct given Scotland’s separate status during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603). Be that as it may, the last woman actually to rule Britain – in that she attended most cabinet meetings, unlike Queen Victoria – was Queen Anne, from 1702 to 1714.
An article about the growth in seizures of counterfeit alcohol brands also used the term “fake” to describe the alcohol seized. To clarify: the brands were fake or counterfeit but the contents of the seized bottles, even if adulterated with methanol, were still alcohol.
January 2012
4 posts
An earlier version of this article incorrectly described imagery from “The Shining.” The gentleman seen with the weird guy in the bear suit is wearing a tuxedo, but not a top hat.
Costa Concordia shipwreck’s hero and villain lay bare two souls of Italy was corrected because the original said that “Italy is once again the laughing stocking of foreign newspapers”. This has been changed to laughing stock.
A piece said: “The AAA grade by the two ratings agencies Standard & Poor’s and Fitch and Moody’s is considered the gold standard.” That was meant to be the three ratings agencies Standard & Poor’s, Fitch, and Moody’s.
Mortality statistics: every cause of death in England and Wales was amended to correct “bitten by bees” to “stung by bees”.
December 2011
2 posts
An article on Monday about Jack Robison and Kirsten Lindsmith, two college students with Asperger syndrome who are navigating the perils of an intimate relationship, misidentified the character from the animated children’s TV show “My Little Pony” that Ms. Lindsmith said she visualized to cheer herself up. It is Twilight Sparkle, the nerdy intellectual, not Fluttershy, the kind animal lover.
Nicolas Sarkozy mentioned the war – but he got away with it was corrected because the original referred to the German black, red and yellow tricolour. However, as defined in Article 22 of the German Basic Law (constitution), “The federal flag shall be black, red and gold.”
October 2011
4 posts
A recipe for honey nut banana muffins included a comment that “you may want to add a little fried fruit to the mix … to make the flavour more interesting”. Dried fruit, that should be.
In a story headed South Africa resists march of Walmart the head of Walmart’s international division, Doug McMillon, was quoted apparently telling South Africans, “We will provide previously undeserved customers and communities with better prices and increased access to the products they want”. That was meant to be under-served.
An article on 16 August reported that Manchester United footballer Tom Cleverley had begged a girl for sex after meeting her at a night club, even though he was dating a Page 3 model. In fact, entirely unknown to the girl it now transpires that the man involved, who looked like Tom Cleverley, was impersonating him. We apologise to Mr Cleverley for any embarrassment caused.
— The Sun
Girls’ Generation lead K-pop invasion of Japan was corrected because the original said the song 1!2!3!4! Yoroshiku is by AKB48. This is actually by a different Japanese girlband, SKE48.
September 2011
2 posts
Guns N’ Roses and the Cure nominated for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was corrected because the original said Eric B is a rapper, when he is best referred to as a DJ.
A clue in yesterday’s Quick crossword was “small mollusc”. The answer sought was shrimp, which is not a mollusc but a crustacean.
August 2011
5 posts
Music Week recently conducted an interview with the utterly charming and mind-blowingly successful songwriter RedOne. For quite a lengthy period he talked about how he had recently been in the studio with Dive Bella Dive, One Direction, JLS and Cher Lloyd… After a (slight, honestly) pause, he then discussed how he will be working on a collaboration between Cher and Lady Ga-Ga. Transcribing the interview we put two and two together and came up with…. well, two actually, but the wrong two.
The Cher to whom RedOne referred was, of course, living legend Cher. As in Sonny and Cher. As in Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves. As in Do You Beliiiiieeeeeve In Life After Love. Not Cher as in Lloyd. As in did quite well in X-Factor and has had one, admittedly huge, hit record…
Tomorrow won’t be any better than today, as the print edition will hit your desks with that completely erroneous story on, you guessed it, the front page. Ignore it. Please. Concentrate on the excellent news about record-breaking single sales, maybe. That’s all totally true, promise.
We have, of course, apologised to all involved. And now, dear reader, we apologise to you.
