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@daphne diaphanous said:
Heavens above JimmyT! I think you might have lost the aforesaid button yourself.
It took me five minutes to spot it but, yes, the literal is there and I won’t edit it out as a reminder of my own shame.
There’s an old principle in journalism called Muphrys Law – which is that, in trying to correct someone else’s mistake you invariably make one yourself.
The most commonly quoted example is the newspaper that had messed up when trying to describe a retired military leader as “battle-scarred”.
The apology went something like:
“In yesterday’s edition we referred to General So-and-so as being “bottle-scarred”. Obviously we intended to say “battle-scared” and apologise for any embarrassment caused.”
I have worked on several newspapers that all claimed to have run that story. I think it’s an urbane myth.
Oh, and there should have been a comma after “heavens above”.