We're in: 'For Better or For Worse'

A year ago, "For Better or For Worse" creator Lynn Johnston introduced a new approach to her wildly popular comic strip.

Instead of a new storyline, the Patterson family's story would be retold — and continued — in a mix of old and new material.

At the time, I was uncertain whether such a melding of material would work, or if it would feel like "reruns."

Turns out, I've enjoyed the strip over the past year.

Now Johnston is trying something different. Or at least I think it's different.

Beginning Monday, the comic strip that is in more than 2,000 newspapers worldwide every day will be what its creator calls "new-runs."

This is the explanation we received from Universal Press Syndicate, which distributes Johnston's work:

Using new comic strips drawn in the style she used 29 years ago when the Patterson family first appeared on comic pages, Johnston will begin retelling their story from the beginning, eventually blending at least half of the classic original comic strips with new material.

Johnston explains her approach and talks about why changes in her personal life led her to back off from earlier plans to retire in a video posted on YouTube.com (www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUzkOxgmmc4).

"Everything in September is new," said Johnston, "the punch lines, the drawing, all are new. The only thing retro is the way I'm drawing everything."

Johnston will select material from her collection of almost 10,000 archival strips to help retell the Patterson family's story as her longtime fans remember it, pausing in spots to update references that seem confusing or even to flesh out characters she didn't explore in the first telling.

Again, I'm skeptical. But I'm willing to be convinced. So take a look and let me know what you think.

'How do so many mistakes happen?'

That was the question asked by reader Rita Young of Yakima, who sent in a clipping of last Sunday's Anniversaries, Engagements and Weddings page from the Yakima Herald-Republic. Her note said she found "at least 11 spelling and typing mistakes." She's right — and it is completely unacceptable.

I can explain it, but I can't excuse it.

It started with a news clerk who does not normally handle these announcements; she was filling in for another news clerk on vacation. And the fill-in clerk did not spell-check them before sending them on to the copy desk.

The copy editor who created the page and placed the announcements and their photos also failed to spell-check the finished page.

Then another copy editor proofread the page, and simply missed all of the errors Young caught. (The five other errors the proofreader caught did get corrected.)

It's embarrassing to let these kinds of mistakes get published, and we apologize to those whose announcements were marred by the errors. We are republishing the corrected announcements as a part of today's Weddings, Anniversaries and Engagements on pages 4D and 5D.

My late husband, who was a veteran copy editor, would be very disappointed in me if I didn't add that while we are mortified by any spelling, grammar and typographical errors that make it into print, copy editors save reporters from embarrassment on a daily — if not hourly — basis.

Their jobs have changed dramatically in the 30 years I've been a journalist. While my husband Max was a gifted grammarian and wordsmith, copy editors today are also called upon to be computer technicians, page designers and masters of all kinds of factual trivia — and they are expected to do that all on deadline. They are the last line of defense for you as readers.

So when I mistype presidential, misspell significant, call it North A Street instead of East A Street, or leave out a word altogether — all errors made and caught in this column in recent weeks — a copy editor saves me.

Our copy editors take their perfectionism, and their role in protecting you from glaring imperfections, very seriously.

* Sarah Jenkins is editor of the Yakima Herald-Republic. If you have a question or concern, you can reach her at 577-7703; P.O. Box 9668, Yakima WA 98909; or sjenkins@yakimaherald.com. You can also comment on this column in the "Inside the Newsroom" blog, at editor.yakimablogs.com.

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