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Keep in mind, I have had a headache for like, four days now, and I am CRANKY.
Anyway, we get these little notices from the funeral homes sometimes called pendings. What those are is just a little two-line thing that essentially says "Random Human died, Random Funeral Home handling arrangements." That's mostly for when people die just before deadline and the family wants to get a notice out the next day but don't have time for the full obituary (which gets printed the next day, in most cases).
Anyway, since these are basically just rough drafts of obits, we don't pay them too much mind. If it's something really questionable, we might call and ask about it, but mostly we just shove them into print and ignore them.
So...I took this call from a woman about a pending.
Me: "Newsroom."
Her: "I need to talk to someone about an obituary."
Me: "That's me."
Her: "Yes, I need to get an obit rerun."
Me: "What was the name?"
Her: "John Doe."
So I pulled the obit, and it was a pending. The name was spelled "John Doe" (changed obviously) on the obit. We don't normally rerun pendings, but I was curious about the issue.
Me: "What was wrong with the obit, ma'am?"
Her: "You spelled John's name wrong. It should be spelled "Doh"."
Me: "Um, okay, ma'am, the funeral home sent it to us spelled "Doe", so you'd need to talk to them."
Her: "I KNOW they did, but you should have caught it there!"
...wait a minute, what?
Me: "You...knew they sent it to us with the wrong spelling, but you think we should have known it was spelled wrong?"
Her: "Well, yeah, that's what you have proofreaders for there!"
Me: "Ma'am...we get some pretty bizarre names sent to us. Unless someone calls and tells us otherwise, we can't assume a name is misspelled unless it looks really evident..."
Her: "And 'Doe' seemed more normal than 'Doh'??"
(At this point, I seem to begin unconsciously channeling Gravekeeper, because this is not how I usually get snarky with people. I'm not good at sarcasm, I'm good at brute violence. But...)
Me: "...yes?"
Her: "You should have known there was more than one spelling!"
Me: "I DO know that ma'am. I just assumed that the family who sends us the obit would know how to spell their own name."
Her: "ARE YOU CALLING ME STUPID?!"
Me: "...well, I'm saying you should know how to spell your own name by this point."
Her: "I WANT YOUR MANAGER!!"
Me: "He'll be in at two, would you like his voicemail?"
Her: *slams down phone*
About ten minutes later (I wasn't quite done typing this up, but roughly ten minutes), I get a call from poor E at the funeral home.
Me: "What's up, E?"
E: "Um, Mysty, about that John Doe obit..."
Me: "I already talked to that glorious ray of sunshine, E, what'd she say to you?"
E: "Nothing, I told her we'd fix it in the full obit and not to worry about bothering you guys about it...I think maybe it shut her up."
Me: "Thanks, dude, I owe you a coke."
E: "...did you actually tell her she should know how to spell her own name?"
Me: "Yes."
E:
"Okay, yeah, I'll make sure she doesn't call you back."
Me:
"Two cokes."
In summation, even though she watched the funeral home write up the pending with the wrong spelling of the name, and send it to me like that, she thought I would somehow ascertain the spelling was incorrect, fix it on my own, and it would all be well in the paper.
Wow, when I just lay it out in a paragraph like that, it's even worse...
Anyway, we get these little notices from the funeral homes sometimes called pendings. What those are is just a little two-line thing that essentially says "Random Human died, Random Funeral Home handling arrangements." That's mostly for when people die just before deadline and the family wants to get a notice out the next day but don't have time for the full obituary (which gets printed the next day, in most cases).
Anyway, since these are basically just rough drafts of obits, we don't pay them too much mind. If it's something really questionable, we might call and ask about it, but mostly we just shove them into print and ignore them.
So...I took this call from a woman about a pending.
Me: "Newsroom."
Her: "I need to talk to someone about an obituary."
Me: "That's me."
Her: "Yes, I need to get an obit rerun."
Me: "What was the name?"
Her: "John Doe."
So I pulled the obit, and it was a pending. The name was spelled "John Doe" (changed obviously) on the obit. We don't normally rerun pendings, but I was curious about the issue.
Me: "What was wrong with the obit, ma'am?"
Her: "You spelled John's name wrong. It should be spelled "Doh"."
Me: "Um, okay, ma'am, the funeral home sent it to us spelled "Doe", so you'd need to talk to them."
Her: "I KNOW they did, but you should have caught it there!"
...wait a minute, what?
Me: "You...knew they sent it to us with the wrong spelling, but you think we should have known it was spelled wrong?"
Her: "Well, yeah, that's what you have proofreaders for there!"
Me: "Ma'am...we get some pretty bizarre names sent to us. Unless someone calls and tells us otherwise, we can't assume a name is misspelled unless it looks really evident..."
Her: "And 'Doe' seemed more normal than 'Doh'??"
(At this point, I seem to begin unconsciously channeling Gravekeeper, because this is not how I usually get snarky with people. I'm not good at sarcasm, I'm good at brute violence. But...)
Me: "...yes?"
Her: "You should have known there was more than one spelling!"
Me: "I DO know that ma'am. I just assumed that the family who sends us the obit would know how to spell their own name."
Her: "ARE YOU CALLING ME STUPID?!"
Me: "...well, I'm saying you should know how to spell your own name by this point."
Her: "I WANT YOUR MANAGER!!"
Me: "He'll be in at two, would you like his voicemail?"
Her: *slams down phone*
About ten minutes later (I wasn't quite done typing this up, but roughly ten minutes), I get a call from poor E at the funeral home.
Me: "What's up, E?"
E: "Um, Mysty, about that John Doe obit..."
Me: "I already talked to that glorious ray of sunshine, E, what'd she say to you?"
E: "Nothing, I told her we'd fix it in the full obit and not to worry about bothering you guys about it...I think maybe it shut her up."
Me: "Thanks, dude, I owe you a coke."
E: "...did you actually tell her she should know how to spell her own name?"
Me: "Yes."
E:
"Okay, yeah, I'll make sure she doesn't call you back."Me:
"Two cokes."In summation, even though she watched the funeral home write up the pending with the wrong spelling of the name, and send it to me like that, she thought I would somehow ascertain the spelling was incorrect, fix it on my own, and it would all be well in the paper.
Wow, when I just lay it out in a paragraph like that, it's even worse...
That's classic ... pure classic ...
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