Whoops-a-doozies and personal enlightenment

When I was younger and we got in the paper for doing anything, like, say, when they posted the kids in the honor roll (notice how I slipped that in there, so now you can guess how smart I am? Or was. Whatever.), it would always tick me off when they misspelled my last name: MacKenzie. You see that capital "K" there? Vital. And that 'a' betwixt the "M" and "c"? Also of world-shattering importance.

"I SAID THE 'K' IS CAPITALIZED!!!!"

I couldn't understand why they (my predecessors, meaning everyone who used to work at the Advocate and doesn't anymore, except for Linda Moody, who has been chained to her desk by people like me for the last four decades since we don't want her to leave) would get it wrong all the time. My grandparents would call in and complain, my folks would make sure I knew what they did wrong... and I haven't misspelled my last name since I was, like, 4, so I couldn't understand why THEY did.

Well, today, I got an e-mail from an annoyed mother. And I get it.

Pretty much exactly what happened.

I have less of an excuse than my predecessors did: when you list out 300 names, if you only spell one of them wrong, you're doing pretty good. The problem that arises there, though, is that that name is attached to a person who cares about how you spell it, and they don't care that you got 299/300 names right, they're all fired up and think you're a moron because you spelled 1/300 wrong.

"You painted it the wrong color, you idiot."

Now, in my defense, the kid's name was spelled differently than the norm. Her name, which was only spoken, not spelled, to me, is Kohl. I spelled it "Cole". A perfectly understandable mistake, I feel, though I do apologize for it. I could pass the buck to the teacher on duty who spelled the child's last name but not the first, or to the kindergartner herself (she could have spelled it for me, they know how to do that in kindygarden, right?), but I'm not going to. I'm not even going to blame it on laziness.

I spelled the child's name that way because I thought I'd done it right.

I do my best to get my facts correct. I did not, nor will I ever (unless it's really funny, or even slightly funny, or there's a small chance I might get even the hint of a chuckle) purposefully do something wrong. So, this mom (like my grandparents, like my parents, like every parent who's ever been unable to understand why the people at newspapers are so thick, and like, I'll admit, myself when I'm shattering worlds because of a dropped "a" or missed shift key) might think I'm doing it on purpose, like I'm out to get her kid, which is simply not the case.

Again, I apologize, but please know that it was nothing personal.

I just liked this picture, and wanted to show it again.