Mistakes happen, and at a newspaper as large as this one with so many stories and headlines written each day, a few errors are bound to slip in.

That's why I'm hoping the past 10 days or so have been an aberration in the corrections department.

Pick just about any day over that period and there was a glaring error that defied logic.

In the Wednesday, Jan. 31 paper, we used a picture of a man we identified as Mohandas Gandhi but was really actor Ben Kingsley who won an Oscar playing Gandhi in the 1982 film. Two days later, in the Friday, Feb. 2 paper, we ran a story about a New Zealander who pleaded innocent in a murder case. Our headline said he pleaded guilty. Two days later, on Sunday, Feb. 4, we said Frank Fasi had been governor of Hawai'i and noted in an obituary that William Henry Waddell served with the 9th and 10th Calvary in World War II when we meant to say Cavalry. In the same paper, the TV Week book previewed the Super Bowl with the glaring Roman numerals spelling out LXI (61) instead of XLI (41).

There were other more minor errors over this five-day period but the group listed above is mortifying because they all went through a number of editors and should have been caught before arriving on your doorstep.

And what did readers think about them?

"Let's not pour more money into the education system," wrote one reader. "To paraphrase, if a horse isn't thirsty, you can't make him drink."

Wrote another: "If this is due, in part, to the quality of our schools, such a problem should be recognized and brought into focus. I hope the news media can at least set a proper example."

Too harsh? Maybe on the education system, but not too harsh on us.

Readers expect us to set a higher standard and when we make egregious errors, our credibility suffers. Why believe what the newspaper has to say about anything when it can't decipher Roman numerals or tell the real Gandhi from the actor who portrayed him?

Our procedures here at The Advertiser are for an editor to talk with those who made the mistake and examine what happened. At one time, we had forms that had to be filled out for reporters and editors to say how the error was made and what could be done to avoid similar mistakes in the future. A batch at a time would arrive on my desk and frankly, they seemed like excess bureaucracy.

Besides, Advertiser writers and editors take great pride in their work and feel horrible when they've written something that warrants a correction. Those most responsible for the errors mentioned above have no history of making similar mistakes and so the way we deal with errors is to have a discussion, secure a pledge for better efforts and get back to work.

That's not to excuse mistakes, which we correct promptly and willingly. We always go back and set up some procedures that we hope will keep the problems from being repeated. When the situation becomes dire, as it has these past few weeks, I will send out a note to the troops warning of the seriousness of the situation.

In the Saturday, Jan. 27 paper, we announced some management changes and how new editors were taking on different responsibilities designed to make The Advertiser better. The story said to turn to Page B5 but the story was continued on B2.

When I turned the page and couldn't find the story, I could just hear readers wondering why we couldn't even get a story right that was touting our key personnel. Of all the things that annoy readers, stories that don't appear on the pages they are directed to no doubt top the list.

Steve Petranik, who runs our copy desk, sent out a note with the heading "This will NOT happen again" and set in place a number of procedures for copy editors, designers and news editors to follow.

Then came Tuesday and another batch of five embarrassing errors. Wednesday's Getting it Straight column took up as much space as a short story in our newspaper.

After a lot of years in the business, I know that errors come in bunches. So while I'm disturbed and disappointed, I'm optimistic that we'll enter a mistake-free period. If not, we'll go back to the drawing board.