Kill Duck Before Serving: Red Faces at the New York Times

By Dashka Slater

That's Fit to Print""All the News On June 21, 1950, the front page slogan appeared like this. By the time the error was noticed, it was too late to correct it that day. But it was corrected, in a manner of speaking, the next day and every day thereafter. Even Homer nods. Some mistakes are careless oversights while others are genuine howlers. This irresistible collection of notable errors from the pages of "The New York Times includes everything from gross historical inaccuracies, glaring misidentifications, and disastrous recipes to a wide range of inexplicable, unsupportable boners. "Kill Duck Before Serving is a quirky selection of all the corrections fit to print by one of our most esteemed newspapers. March 11, 1975In yesterday's issue, "The New York Times did not report on riots in Milan and the subsequent murder of the lay religious reformer Erlembald. These events took place in 1075, the year given in the dateline under the nameplate on Page 1. The Times regrets bothincidents. April 7, 1995Because of a transcription error, an article about Senator Alfonse M. D'Amato's remarks about Judge Lance A. Ito misquoted the Senator at one point. In his conversation with the radio host Don Imus, he said: "I mean, this is a disgrace. Judge Ito will be well known." He did not say, "Judge Ito with the wet nose." October 22, 2000An article about Ivana Trump and her spending habits misstated the number of bras she buys. It is two doz

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312284276
• ISBN13: 9780312284275
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Length: 172 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.3" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Kill Duck Before Serving: Red Faces at The New York Times

Hilarious and informative, this collection of corrections from the ever-so-proper New York Times should please anyone who has ever worked in journalism and anyone who either loves or hates The Times. The wry chapter headings -- "Half-Baked," "Sorry, Wrong Number," "Quote, Unquote" and so on -- are a perfect set up for the send up. The book takes its title from a correction published on April 25, 1981: "An article about decorative cooking incorrectly described a presentation of Muscovy duck by Michael Fitoussi, a New York chef. In preparing it, Mr. Fitoussi uses a duck that has been killed." From other entries, you can learn such things as how many bras Ivana Trump buys at a time, the correct definition of a nanometer and how to spell the names of famous artists, politicians and sports figures (and how many times The Times got each of them wrong).