Typos Do Matter -- Sometimes

Like about 30 million other Americans, I enjoy watching American Idol every week. It's probably better titled American Idle since for me that's the point. I get to put the brain in neutral for a while.

Second attempts are almost always better than firsts (even if the firsts were very good).

What happened this week made me sit up, however. As a writer, I always take notice when someone else commits a typo and it gets them into trouble. Writers focus so much on the thought behind the words, that to be undone by mere letters is the height of irritation. What makes the pain even worse is that it is invariably the typos that are the first things reviewers notice -- not the fact that no one else has been able to come up with exactly the right words and, gee, isn't this neat?

What happened on the TV show was that someone forgot to proof the phone numbers under the names of the contestants (voted on by viewers who call in). As a result, about an hour of prime time TV had to be given over the next night to what was essentially a rerun of the previous night's performances, so viewers could revote.

But what was the damage? Not the ratings. The show American Idol preempted could not hope to attract as many viewers (Point Pleasant -- 4 million viewers). What about the show's image? Controversy usually helps reality television -- making shows in fact more real by giving them "real" news coverage. And Idol was getting kudos from the critics for the deliberate and conscientious way it recovered from the mistake.

Notice to writers: the next time someone flags a typo, don't get mad. That would be the real mistake. Second attempts are almost always better than firsts (even if the firsts were very good).

Calling My Old Client

You know who you are. We worked together years ago. We haven't kept in touch like we should have. Partly my fault, I know. Every now and then I read about you in the trades. You seem to be doing okay. Made it through the downturn, I see. Your new product sounds great.

Instead of schmoozing, let's just do a small project together

Truth be told -- I'm not much of a schmoozer. In fact, I'm pretty task oriented, which is what you had said you wanted. You had deadlines to meet, you said. Budgets were tight. You wanted to just send an email and whatever needed to be done got done. Problem solved.

Problem was, however, that when the last project ended, we didn't have much to talk about. We didn't reconnect. My loss, I know. But you lost a little too. One thing's for sure: I knew your architecture cold. And I remember what you said at our first meeting: "My CEO doesn't have time to bring 'dumb' writers up to speed."

I have one suggestion. Instead of schmoozing, let's just do a small project together from time to time -- just to stay in touch. Maybe a news release or a small case study. No biggy. Just enough so that when the next "real" project comes along, we won't feel like we're starting from scratch.

Sound good? Then send me another email. I'd love to catch up.