Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 4 · column 3 of 7 · from the scan, no model involved
by JAMES J. KILPATRICK
I'niversal I'reiwt Syndicate
MS. FERRARO WASN’T CONCEIVING
Most of the goofs, gaffes, bloopers and howlers that float across my desk may be easily explained. A weekly paper in Seguin, Texas, carried an item in September about the Democratic senatorial primary in New York. The apparent winner was Robert Abrams, “but Ms. Ferraro is not conceiving until all the absentee ballots are counted.”
OK, the writer meant “conceding,” not “conceiving.” Readers may have been startled, but they were not wholly mystified. But what is one to make of an ad for men’s clothing? A store in Asheville, N.C., was promoting slacks as “the accomplice to our navy blazers.” Accomplice?
Maybe I get easily puzzled. A weekly paper in Greenwood Village, Colo., carried a social note last year that still nags at me. It began, ‘The Cherry Hills home of Rusty and Linda Scott is becoming a frequent destination for decadent parties.” The rest of the story had nothing at all to do with decadence. The Scotts’ party was “another notch in the belts of these wonderful hosts.”
USA Today carried an item a year ago about “The Nancy Ziegenmeyer Story,” a CBS film about an Iowa woman who was raped and went public with the story. The actress who played the lead role explained: “The message is that people can realize that as venal a crime as rape is, they don’t have to allow the ict to ruin their lives.”
80.3%