By Anne Harpham

Several readers asked last week about our policy on the use of standard English after a story on June 20 dropped a preposition and went with a more casual sentence structure.

The story, about the successful search for a missing boy, included this sentence: "Witnesses told police they spotted Nahe at a gas station across the YMCA."

Many readers may have not even blinked when they read that sentence, because it is a style of phrasing sometimes heard in casual conversation. Others, while recognizing it for what it meant, still were bothered by its nonstandard usage.

One reader e-mailed, asking if this was "acceptable English usage in your newspaper's style manual?" The reader went on to say every English teacher he ever had "would have corrected it as unacceptable phrasing."

We were bothered, too, by the phrasing and all involved agree it should not have found its way into print. The sentence should have said "across from the YMCA."

Every so often, the newsroom is reminded of how The Advertiser is a part of readers' daily routines. Unfortunately, we are usually reminded of it when we have done something to upset that routine.

We did that last Tuesday when we reran the previous Tuesday's Jumble. Several readers called, at least one noting our failure that morning had made a difference — not for the better — in his day.

We ran the correct Jumble the next day, but we fully realize readers look forward to the daily opportunity to tease their brains with this word puzzle, and they don't want the feature a day late. We apologize to all who were inconvenienced by our error and a new procedure has been instituted in our pre-press department to better check the Jumble before the press run begins for the Classified section.

Schoolchildren who know the states and state capitals probably also know the capital of Alaska is spelled Juneau.

More than a few readers suggested last Monday after seeing our misspelling (Juno) that we should go back to school. There were more than a few red faces in the newsroom over that one.