New York Daily News.
Just because they're supposed to be a newspaper you BUY, and not, oh, NEWSER or some other Internet shitpile, you don't expect them to have PROOFREADERS.
All of us make mistakes.
Somebody at the Daily News realized something was wrong.
So they fixed it.
Unfortunately, even if you HAVE proofreaders, that doesn't mean they'll catch everything.
They might even be so set in their ignorance, that they won't change something even when you point it out.
Years ago, I mentioned Andre Agassi in my book "Who'd SAY That?"
Before it went to the printer, I checked over the final proofs, and noticed Andre's name was changed.
Andre Agassiz.
WHAT?
I called up Donn (yeah, TWO n's) the proofreader and I said, "We need to take the z off. It's Andre Aggasi."
He said, at the end of a few long, windy sentences; "The correct ending for the Greek name is AgassIZ. So that's why I corrected it."
I said, "Donn, who knows, his parents came over here and they decided to drop the Z, maybe because they didn't pronounce it. I don't even know if he's Greek or not."
"Oh, I've not heard of Agassi, but AgassIZ..."
"Either way, Donn, he's a very famous tennis player, and he spells his name Agassi."
I went through the proofs and dropped them off at the office. This included my crossing out AGASSIZ and restoring AGASSI.
Yes, you guessed it. I get a copy of the finished book, and...the proofreader switched it back to AGASSIZ.
Trivia note on that book: Donald Trump is among the stars on the cover!
Always ready to save a publisher some money, I handed in a bunch of celebrity photos I took myself. No extra charge, FRIENDS. The cover had Howard Stern, Joan Rivers, David Letterman, John Cleese, Frank Sinatra, Roger Moore...who am I leaving out...oh yes, and oddly enough, the first one, top of the cover, THE DONALD.
I can proudly (?) say that I have taken photos of a PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
I also met, shook hands with, and talked a little comedy with President Clinton.
I took photos of Mayor Koch, and met and talked baseball with Rudy Giuliani. OBSCURE baseball. As in...
Me: "You're a Yankees fan going way back, right?"
Rudy: (modestly) "Well, yes."
Me: "Then you must've seen Norm Siebern play."
Rudy: (eyes widening) "Yes...he was a good player. He had that bad day in the World Series, that's all. You know who they replaced him with in left field? Do you remember?"
Me: "No, I don't."
Rudy: "Yogi Berra!"
You don' want more of this, do you? I didn't think so. Oh. I also took photos of Yogi Berra. I didn't speak to Yogi, though. I did take photos of and speak to Phil Rizzuto, which was a real thrill. Watta great guy.
But I digress.
So, Rudy Giuliani, I'm glad you didn't go to Ukraine. Especially if it wasn't to talk to them and their neighbors about why they don't recognize copyright and LOVE to let morons steal music via their blogs and their weasel-esque download services.
And I sympathize with the Daily News, trying to keep afloat when people get their info from FOX NEWS and Twitter and parasites like NEWSER. After all, the N.Y. Daily News actually serialized one of my books, giving me the FRONT PAGE on the Sunday edition, and a page for the next five days of the week. On that alone (plus a review of a book here and there, and an interview with me once in a while) makes them the local paper that's given me the most ink. Second is the Post and third is the Times. I think with my sister, that order is completely reversed.
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