Long ago and far away, I was assigned to do a feature on the mood and scene at various polling places.

The story I wrote contained an error. I called a woman I quoted "Julia S. Long."

Her name was Julia S. Lopez.

At that paper, creating the need for a correction meant you had to go have a visit with our in-house ombudsman, a curmudgeon named Leo Della Betta. The idea was to determine if there might be some way to avoid making a similar mistake in the future.

I told Leo that I had the woman's name right in my notes. And, even though I knew it would sound ridiculous, I then mentioned that I was sitting next to fellow reporter John S. Long while writing my story and maybe that's how the error happened.

"Well," said Leo. "Sitting next to that goofy bastard, it's a wonder you got anything right."

Thus exonerated, I headed back to my desk. 

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