What is the most offensive thing someone has ever asked you?
08.06.2025 00:12
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!
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!”
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.
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.
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.