What is the most offensive thing someone has ever asked you?
12.06.2025 07:54
The editor had the word masturbate highlighted, as I probably spelled it with an ‘e’ rather than ‘u’, as I just did now. He said, “Dan, you of all people should know how to spell masturbate!”
It was also before the favorite error I’ve seen in print, when the Wisconsin State Journal top story in big letters stated: “Thompson’s Penis a Sword!” - That was Gov. Tommy Thompson’s veto “pen”, without the space after it. That one made the late-night talk shows!
As an aside, that was long before, at a better newspaper, when I was laying out the front page, I teased the weather page with “partly sunny, chance of flowers”, which was my favorite error I’ve made.
This was long before bosses had to be careful about offending people, making remarks that could be taken out of context or might offend, or any of that.
The first daily newspaper where I worked in Wisconsin was in Beaver Dam. One time the editor showed me the copy I had written for a story. That must have been when a teacher got in trouble for demonstrating condom usage on cucumbers and bananas - that was a story USA Today carried nationally that I had written.