To Get Things Started

To kick off the 2009 year of blogging, I thought I'd post a wrap-up of some notables from 2008. First, Regret the Error brings us the best corrections (or not) of the year. Some of my favorites include:

Correction of the Year
One of the year’s most coveted awards goes to none other than Dave Barry. Here’s how the famous humor writer chose to correct a misspelling he made in a column published by the Miami Herald:

In yesterday’s column about badminton, I misspelled the name of Guatemalan player Kevin Cordon. I apologize. In my defense, I want to note that in the same column I correctly spelled Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarak, Poompat Sapkulchananart and Porntip Buranapraseatsuk. So by the time I got to Kevin Cordon, my fingers were exhausted.

And...

Typo of the Year
The Valley News, a newspaper distributed in Vermont and New Hampshire**, committed what many journalists and editors would agree is just about the most embarrassing typo possible: it misspelled its own name on the front page. Behold:

And...

Most Cutting Correction
Private Eye (UK):

Our item about Slough in the last issue said the leader of the Tory group on the council was Cllr Diana Coad. In fact that honour currently falls to one Derek Cryer. “Lady” Diana, who is also the party’s parliamentary candidate for the town, merely behaves as if she is leader.
Apologies to the invisible man.

Ouch! Just as entertaining, though, is the Media Research Center's list of the top quotes of 2008. Here are some of the best:

Quote of the Year:

The Obamagasm Award:
“Some princes are born in palaces. Some are born in mangers. But a few are born in the imagination, out of scraps of history and hope....Barack Hussein Obama did not win because of the color of his skin. Nor did he win in spite of it. He won because at a very dangerous moment in the life of a still young country, more people than have ever spoken before came together to try to save it. And that was a victory all its own.”
— Time’s Nancy Gibbs, Nov. 17 cover story.

Good Morning Morons Award:

Politics of Meaninglessness Award for the Silliest Analysis [the first part is about global warming]:

There you have it! I just thought it would be fun to start with a chuckle or two. Now, on to 2009!

There's my two cents.