A spelling mistake

Eagle-eyed readers out there who keep me on my toes [READER]( It has come to my attention that I made a spelling mistake in last week’s newsletter. I spelled a name wrong. I wrote “Mayor Tyler Moore.” As opposed to Mary Tyler Moore. If there are any people out there who think—you know, based on last week’s newsletter—that her name was Mayor, as opposed to Mary, please be warned . . . It’s Mary. Not Mayor. Just in case you’ve been drawing blank stares when you tell people about this great TV actress named Mayor Tyler Moore. I know about my spelling mistake because a few of you were kind enough to send me e-mails telling me all about it. Like this one . . . “Hey, idiot—it’s Mary. Not Mayor.” Or this one . . . “What high school did you drop out of, dufus?” And so forth . . . I must admit I felt awful about calling Mary “Mayor”—though it is sorta funny. As any reporter will tell you, few things in a reporter’s life are worse than a misspelling. Well, getting fired is right up there. I did that once, too. Or should I say—it was done to me. Though misspellings had nothing to do with it. I assure you. Back to feeling awful . . . After I discover a mistake, I have a hard time falling asleep. Not kidding. This stuff gnaws at me. I feel like Chris Farley interviewing Paul McCartney. Where he keeps asking dumb questions and then he says, “Idiot. Stupid.” And he hits himself. That may be the [funniest skit]( in the history of Saturday Night Live, by the way. Years ago, when breaking into the business, I had this sourpuss editor, who called me into her office to chide me for making too many mistakes in my copy. She pulled out one of my stories and showed me all the errors, which she’d circled in red. “A reporter who makes a mistake in his copy is like a surgeon who makes a mistake in an operation,” she said. “And do you know what happens when a surgeon makes a mistake in an operation?” “No,” I said. “The patient dies—that’s what happens!” Needless to say, I felt really awful after that. Like I personally was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of surgery-room patients. Then she gave me a copy of The Associated Press Stylebook. “This is your Bible,” she said. “Don’t just read it—memorize it!” That night I returned to the hovel in which I lived—a two-room apartment in a converted dental office above a hardware store. And I opened the stylebook and started with the As . . . “A, an. Use the article a before consonant sounds: a historical event . . . Use the article an before vowel sounds: an enemy crisis . . .” At some point, I must have fallen asleep. When I woke, the sun was rising and the stylebook was on my lap, opened to where I’d been, when I had drifted off. The Cs . . . “Caesarean section . . .” I’ve since learned that newspaper mistakes are far more common than old sourpuss let on. And if you held reporters to the same standards as you hold surgeons, no one would ever survive even the most routine of Caesarean sections. Still . . . To call Mary Tyler Moore “Mayor Tyler Moore” sucks—even if, as I said, it is sorta funny. Thanks to all you eagle-eyed readers out there who keep me on my toes. C’mon, everybody, one more time . . . “You’re gonna make it after all!” 🏆 Final voting for Best of Chicago opens on Wednesday! Are you ready to vote for your faves? 📨 [Sign up for updates so you don’t miss out on celebrating the things you love]( in the city you love with the Reader! Eley Williams’s novel—[The Liar’s Dictionary](. A funny mystery about people who write dictionaries. Katie Prout interviews her neighbor, [Anna May Swanson]( Ben Joravsky on the great [MAGA showdown]( Mary Miller v. Congressman Rodney Davis. You’ve got to love a Republican civil war . . . [Courtney Sauls]( actress, star of Dear White People [Mick Dumke]( and crime [David Faris]( the Democrats save democracy? [The Ben Joravsky Show]( [Listen to The Ben Joravsky Show]( We've wrapped up season one of CQN! Listen back on all ten episodes [here]( or wherever you get your podcasts. Celebrate your love of the Reader and independent media with our best-selling Reader shirts, totes, masks, mugs, and more! [Shop now to find your favorites!]( [Chicago’s Kreutzer Sonata play hardcore for the whole gang]( by [Leor Galil]( [Emily Blue makes 80s pop for every era on The Afterlove]( by [Leor Galil]( [Ghostly grief]( J.M. Barrie’s Mary Rose has echoes of Peter Pan and its author’s own life. by [Albert Williams]( [Issue of Jan 6 - Jan 19 2022 Vol. 51, No.]( [Download Issue]( (PDF) [View this e-mail as a web page]( [@chicago_reader]( [/chicagoreader]( [@chicago_reader]( [Chicago Reader on LinkedIn]( [/chicagoreader]( [chicagoreader.com]( [Forward this e-mail to a friend](. Want to change how you receive these e-mails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](. Copyright © 2022 Chicago Reader Store, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Chicago Reader, 2930 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 102, Chicago, IL 60616