Alva Review-Courier -

Ah, those pesky mistakes! While working in radio broadcasting, I really appreciated that it was easy to deny statements made on the air waves. If I pronounced someone’s name wrong or used the wrong form of a verb, it generally went unnoticed by most listeners. If someone reported to management that an announcer made an error in a news report, the announcer could deny that’s what he said.

Errors in print are a lot harder to deny. I usually find the worst errors while running the printing press or a bit later when I sit down to look over the finished edition.

It’s easy to be critical of errors until you’ve been tasked with the proofreading and checking. After some time wearing those shoes, one becomes a lot more understanding and forgiving.

When I was growing up, my family was involved in newspaper publishing and job printing. I’ve always been an avid book reader, and my best school grades were always in English. Despite that, my proofreading isn’t foolproof.

At one time, I was the main proofreader for the newspaper office, and Helen Barrett proofread my writing. Then I took over the bookkeeping tasks, and Helen was assigned the proofreading. I filled in when she was gone, and I checked her writing. I remember once I proofread a Rotary Club students of the month article. My brother and others kindly pointed out that Rhonda was his daughter and not his “son” as it stated in the story. I still can’t believe I missed that one!

Currently, Kathleen Lourde has the thankless task of proofreading the majority of news in our publications. I proofread her writing.

However, I still have the task of checking the Alva Review-Courier and Freedom Call papers before they are printed. I don’t read every word, but I try to catch errors in headlines and picture captions. I check page dates and the story “jumps” or continuations to make sure readers are directed to the correct page. I also check that all the ads and legal notices are included.

I was born in Missouri so I am quite familiar with the quote: "The buck stops here." The phrase was popularized by U.S. President Harry S. Truman who called Missouri home. He kept a sign with that phrase on his desk in the Oval Office. I try to keep that phrase in mind while doing my various jobs.

I must have been less alert than normal last Thursday night as I can easily count four errors I should have noticed in Friday’s edition, two of them on the front page! One error originated with me. The others started elsewhere, but I should have caught them! I discovered the two on the front page about halfway through the press run.

It always helps if we can laugh at our mistakes. The Oklahoma Press Association celebrates printed mistakes during the annual press convention, featuring the year’s collected mistakes in a Bloopers contest. After displaying mistakes on a large screen with witty comments from the OPA’s Executive Vice President Mark Thomas, a Blooper of the Year prize is awarded.

The Alva Review-Courier actually won one year. Someone decided to run spell check on the Action Ads and accidentally agreed to change the spelling of a word. That word was changed to one not used in polite conversation, resulting in an embarrassing error. We brought home the prize, a wall hanging made of a toilet seat framing our award.

Very occasionally, people point out errors that we don’t consider errors. People’s names, phone numbers and website addresses are particularly easy to mess up. For example, I wrote about the survey currently being conducted online by the Alva Swimming Pool Task Force. Someone told someone else who told us that the website address was wrong. I compared the printed newspaper to the survey address I had copied and pasted. It was exactly the same. However, that address was at the end of a sentence which was appropriately followed by a period. What if someone decided the period was part of the address?

So in Sunday’s paper, I published a photo of the swimming pool with a caption telling about the survey. This time, I typed in the website address (not a good idea). I managed to transpose two letters. It has since been corrected on our website (Thanks, Becky!). So here’s the address with no period at the end (hopefully): https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RVDY9JJ

Please fill out the survey online by April 20 so the task force has a good idea of what people want in a restored or brand new swimming pool.

And wish me luck in catching errors!

2020 Census

Every 10 years, the United States counts its residents. The resulting population numbers are then used for all kinds of grants and funding from the federal level on down to cities and counties. An Oklahoma Senate news release estimates that each person counted represents $1800 annually to the state. The data is also used to determine how to draw districts for members of the state legislature and the members of Congress.

Census mailings began in March. April 1 is the date to use when determining who lives where. To date, 43.6 percent of Oklahomans have filled out the census. Kansas is doing better with a 53.3 percent response. In the last census in 2010, only 62.3 percent of Oklahomans responded while Kansans hit the 70 percent mark.

We’re halfway through the census period with responses being accepted through April 30. After that, census workers are supposed to go around trying to locate those who have not responded. However, those home visits may not be possible due to coronavirus measures.

If you haven’t filled out your 2020 Census information, please do so. If you have the paper form which was mailed late in March, you can fill that out and mail it in.

This year you can respond to the census online, and the majority of those who have responded did it that way. If you can’t find your form, you can still use the online method. Just go to http://www.my2020census.gov.

The third way to respond is by telephone. The number for English speakers is 844-330-2020. There are phone numbers for other languages. Those may be found at the census website http://www.2020census.gov.