Marriage and bloopers

Stephen Woody

Publisher’s Notebook

You know you’ve been married a long time, writes a columnist, Lisa Rock, in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, “when you whisper to your husband over a candlelight dinner that you’re not wearing underwear, and he replies, ‘Did you forget to do the laundry?’”

  • Polygamist and “prophet” Warren Jeffs is in the slammer, making big news with his arrest earlier this week.

    Forty wives.

    Whew!

  • I get asked, now and then, if Susan really does all those things she writes about in her weekly column.

    Pretty much.

  • I also get asked, now and then, what my favorite newspaper “blooper” is. My favorite is from about 15 years ago and cannot be reprinted in a family paper. It wasn’t profane, or scatological. It was a typo that conjured an image of a public official, which caused quite a stir. With that, I’ll say no more.

    My favorite Daily Press blooper wasn’t in a headline or story, but from a letter from a former circulation manager. (I won’t name names; he was a good guy.)

    A few years ago, there was some delivery dilemma, and he sent out a letter on Daily Press letterhead apologizing to subscribers for “any incontinence” which came about from the problem.

  • Coming Sunday, in your Daily Press….

  • Sunday Feature: It’s Labor Day Weekend, and staff writer Kati O’Hare takes a look at local labor issues.

  • Focus: The Land’s End Hill Climb will be profiled by photojournalist William Woody. Joel Blocker has the video on www.montrosepress.com.

  • Sunday Sports: Delta and Montrose. The oldest high school football rivalry in the state. We’ll have the results, and other news of the Big Game.

  • Inserts: $55 in coupons from SmartSource marketing booklet, USAWeekend magazine, and more.

  • Dept. of incidental info….

    The North American Vexillological Association (a group devoted to the study of flags) has determined that New Mexico has the best designed flag of the 50 states.

    The experts prefer a design which is simple, bold and colorful. (Hard to fathom why Colorado’s didn’t make the top five, if this is the criteria.)

    The other four: Texas, Maryland, Alaska, Arizona.

  • I write often about books, and collect them when I can. But nothing on the scale of a serious collector.

    Abebooks.com is a Canadian-based vintage book retailer which connects collectors. There are more than 80,000 books in its inventory. Some of the more valuable, collectible books:

  • The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien. Published in 1937 in September, only 1,500 were printed in its original dust jacket. The book sold out in mid-December, 1937. Today, one of those copies are worth $65,000.

  • Sir Thomas More was beheaded by Henry VIII and became a Catholic martyr. In 1518, his book about a Utopian society, which pleads for religious tolerance and education for everyone, is now worth $60,000, in its fourth edition.

  • A copy of the Koran, handwritten and published in 1731, is worth $46,000.

  • George Orwell wrote ‘1984’ in 1949 and was hospitalized shortly after its publication with tuberculosis. He never left the hospital, so signed copies are rare. One copy, given to a hospital staffer, is worth $26,500.

  • In more contemporary times, a copy of ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,’ the first edition, published in 1997 is hard to find. It was J.K. Rowling’s debut book and the hardcover print run then was just 500 copies. If you come across a copy, it’s worth almost $40,000.

  • Quotable

    “Facts are stubborn things. Statistics are far more pliable.”

    --Lawrence J. Peter, author/Canadian social muse

  • Have a safe holiday weekend.

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