terribleturnip

Some people are so self-centered that it's a wonder they don't create their own black hole.

Can't you people get anything right? I'm a veteran of our small town weekly paper -- I've been featured as a personal chef, for my work with greyhound adoption, and of course, each year they run something on Scary Perry. And each time there's usually a boner. That the adoption fee is $95 instead of $195, some paraphrasing of what I said that usually winds up making me sound as if I failed Freshman Grammar. (And I know it's not me. Really. I've done a lot of TV interviews and done interviews for books and larger papers -- I give good soundbite.)

But this last one...jeez. Admittedly, I'm already annoyed, because the Gazette photographer couldn't come to take the picture when the kids were home from school, and really, the picture is way more interesting with kids, plus they get such a kick out of it, whereas I'm a bit jaded.

Even if I try to ignore the errors of fact in the article -- like saying that the event is monitored by the police and volunteer fire department (which it's NOT), spelling Dr. Jeckyll wrong, jumping back and forth between using Perry Avenue and Perry Street, that there's a house with a fire dancer (which there was once, several years ago...and if the Fire Department wasn't having apolexy before, they are now..) and several other minor things...

Then he quotes me as saying "For all the work, it's so much better than trick-or-treating in the mall." No. The line is "we do it so that kids will have a safe place to trick or treat the way WE did. We think that trick-or-treating in the mall is just sad." I know. I've been giving this interview for six years. And since I'm used to being misquoted and as misquotes go, that's not THAT bad. Except that the next one is "The day of and beforehand...it seems like you're doing all this work for just a three hours of festival."

"For a three hour event" my friend, that's what I said. (Because I hear the theme from Gilligan's Island every time I say it.) And I always use "as if you're doing" becaues "like" is a pet peeve of mine. And "a three house of festival?" Even if someone talks that...wouldn't you fix the grammar so that it didn't look as if you interviewed the moron of the block? I'm not even going to piss and moan about how you messed up the noun and verb agreement in the rest of the quote, since you did it to my neighbor who's a VOA reporter and I know he gives fabulous and grammatically correct soundbite for a living.

And some of you are thinking "well, look at you, missy, complaining about press coverage!" And you're right, I'd give my left nut (if I hadn't lost it in that hand of poker, sigh) for that kind of coverage for Virginia Faire but the thing is, we don't WANT any coverage. Why?

If you've ever harbored the desire to find out what 4200 pieces of Halloween candy looks like...it's in my living room. (To be fair, that includes what I bought for a neighbor and the 1000-piece neighborhood back up supply, because the new people NEVER believe us when we say 1200-1600 pieces...)

Hmm. And my horoscope today did say something about how I shouldn't whine so much....