Giant Turtles!

[AndyC]

It does happen. There is nothing more maddening than having someone screw up your story after you've filed it. Just as Cheeze said, an editor might have made the mistake, but the writer's name is on it. It's happened to me a few times that I've noticed over the years, usually after the fact, although I've occasionally been able to fix it in time. Since I don't usually have time to read everything after it's printed, who's to say it hasn't happened many more times. Most of the time, for me, it's been an editor or proofreader who is trying to clean up an awkward sentence without realizing that the wording is meant to convey a very specific meaning. Making the sentence cleaner changes the meaning.

I have been fortunate in that nobody has done anything as dumb as calling a turtle an amphibian.

This does remind me of a mistake by someone else I caught a couple of months ago, just as it was headed for the press. A nature photo of a wild turkey, with the cutline suggesting that it's a sign of spring.    I had to point out that turkeys are year-round birds. Have you ever seen a flock of turkey's flying south? No? There's a good reason for that. It was fixed fairly quickly.

[Allhallowsday]

Since when the hell was a turtle a amphibian? On my planet it's a reptile! Morons! Does this paper not have a fact checker...?

Now you know why my "head explodes" when there is no editing.  "Fact checking" would be an editor's job, or a job the editor would delegate. 

I wrote the writer of the article and this is the reply ...
I said  ... "A turtle is NOT a amphibian, it's a reptile."

Yep.

What can I say except that I didn't make that error, and our copydesk
now is well aware of this interesting bit of wildlife biology.

ko

I replied ...

You wrote the article, you own the error. Don't pass the buck.

If you'll pardon my expression, you're a real SOB...    I will karma ya sometime when we make nice nice.    

AndyC, right you are again.   

[CheezeFlixz]

BounceGiggle If you'll pardon my expression, you're a real SOB...   BounceGiggle  I will karma ya sometime when we make nice nice.   BounceGiggle 

Are we not nice-nice? I know I'm a SOB, but I'm a lovable SOB.

[Torgo]

Poor thing looks like it's getting violated by those handlers.   

[AndyC]

Poor thing looks like it's getting violated by those handlers.   

The gaping mouth helps. "Ooooo, not there!"

[CheezeFlixz]

That pic should go over to Humorous Captions. Very inspiring.

OK, jeez fella my prostate is feeling fine .... really it is.

[Allhallowsday]

Get in my belly!

  That is the best caption so far.   

[indianasmith]

Those big alligator snappers can live to be over 200 years old, you know.  I read an interview with a guy who used to trap them for turtle soup until they got rather scarce . . . he said that as late as the early 70's, it was not unusual to kill a large alligator snapper and find a flint arrowhead buried in its shell . . . Indians in Louisiana quit using flint arrowheads in the early 1700's.  Those were some seriously OLD turtles the Cajuns were eating!

[Patient7]

Get in my belly!

  That is the best caption so far.   

Hey thanks! 

[Joe the Destroyer]

Sweet Jesus, is that Morla the Ancient One?