AFTER DEADLINE
Puzzle feature for kids replaced Boyd column
By Anne Harpham
Most Lou Boyd fans — and there are many of you — were forewarned about the demise of his column, "Lou Boyd Revisited," effective Aug. 7.
But many of you missed the announcement and have called wondering why the column has stopped.
It was not our choice. It was Boyd who decided to discontinue his column.
Longtime fans will remember it's not the first time he has retired.
Boyd first retired, at age 73, on Dec. 30, 2000. His columns then were called "Just Checking."
The column was back in less than six months after fans pleaded with him to return. In the second go-round, Boyd's column was composed of revamped items from his 40 years of "Just Checking," with some new items.
The Island Life section last month asked readers to help choose the replacement. "Kidspot," an educational puzzle feature for keiki, started last Monday.
Caption faux pas
We're not all city folks here in The Advertiser newsroom, but readers couldn't be blamed for wondering about it after our farm-animal misidentification Monday morning.
A photo taken last Sunday at the Hawai'i State Farm Fair showed children petting a calf. We identified the animal as a goat in a caption on Page B1 on Monday morning. "If that's a goat, I'm a rabbit," was the message one woman left on my voice mail.
She wasn't alone in being puzzled by our goof. A lot of our readers are more akamai than we are about farm animals and called all week about the error.
The mistake started with the photographer and wasn't caught on the copy desk, where editors see the photos when they write the captions. Everyone involved now knows better.
Letter-editing
We recently corrected two errors related to the upcoming elections that were incorporated in a letter to the editor that was published July 29.
In a break from our usual policy, the correction published in "Getting it Straight" attributed the errors to the editing process because one error was one we should have caught and the other was incorporated into the story in our editing of the letter.
Letters to the editor are subject to trimming and editing. It is our policy to edit for clarity and length, but we do aim to maintain the letter writer's "voice." In this case, we failed to correct an error in the timing of the race for Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustees, forgetting those candidates are on the general-election ballot only.
And we misunderstood a reference by the letter writer to the deadline to register to vote, editing the letter to say it is too late to register. (The deadline to register for the primary election is Aug. 19; the deadline for the general election is Oct. 4.)
Those are errors that were not taken lightly in the editorial section. We value our letter writers, and their contributions are treated carefully throughout the editing process.
Senior editor Anne Harpham is The Advertiser's reader representative. Reach her at 525-8033 or aharpham@honoluluadvertiser.com.
