My job at The Stranger is to verify the spelling of musician names like Cool Nutz and band names like [[[[VVRSNN]]]] and to correct Dan Savage whenever he writes "donut." (It's spelled "doughnut," Dan--this isn't Chicago.) Typos and misspellings and factual errors are almost impossible to avoid in any piece of writing: It's my job to catch them all and make sure they don't get into the paper. But get into the paper they do.

I mean, Jesus, where do I begin?

Probably the most insidious mistakes are typos and misspellings in text (phrases like "Huge House" instead of "Hugo House," from the July 31 Nightstand; sentences like "Are your local feminist correct?" from the Nov 20 Savage Love), but even more frustrating is recognizing an error and then... not... quite... fixing it. Upon reading the subheadline "Reports Show Cops Flaunt Immigrant Policy" ("Bending the Law," Jan 30), I quickly verified the second definition of "flaunt" in my American Heritage--"to show contempt for, scorn"--and then completely missed the usage note just beneath it, which states, "This usage is still widely seen as erroneous and is best avoided." Thank you for that!

Or how about the time I brutally attacked, killed, and dismembered Kathleen Wilson's quote from Local H musician Scott Lucas by accidentally changing the year mentioned from 1991 to 1999, so it read, "I don't want to say, '1999, man! Nirvana! We could have changed the world!'" ("Anger Management," Sept 25). Wah? 1999? Was there a reunion tour?

Errors loom larger when they concern well-known figures or are prominently displayed: "Mayor Greg Nickles" in Strangercrombie 2003's "Parade of Gratitude" (in the issue three weeks ago) had a little mustard to it, as did misspelling the name of local author David Shields in his byline right beneath the headline of his article, "Welcome to America," on Jan 9. But the ultimate public pantsings occur on our cover--"Sub-Pop" on September 18, for instance, or identifying the local music magazine Bandoppler as "Bandlooper" (June 19). Oops.

In a category all its own was the block of 45 words that mysteriously went AWOL from Sandeep Kaushik's feature on Seattle Central Community College professor Mohammad al-Madani ("The Outsider," April 24)--for whatever reason, they just disappeared. And let's not forget the Tuesday Stranger Suggests for the Home Movie Gong Show (Oct 16), whose judges' names I dutifully fact-checked, while completely overlooking the fact that the event was to take place on Monday.

For these and innumerable other blunders in 2003, we regret the.