Comedy of errors in correction

This is my Sunday, Nov. 13, column in The Gazette, available on cycle in our e-edition.

“Good morning,” the email to The Gazette's customer service department began. “In your recent marriage section of the newspaper, not the Milestones, you have it stated that Jacob L. Krueger married Nicole M. Luna on October 1st, 2011. That is not correct. The proper name is Jason L. Krueger.

“I should know, I'm the one that married her and our marriage license reflects the proper name.  Can you have that corrected?”

The newspaper corrected the mistake and I sent a note to Jason, apologizing for the error. His use of humor made his correspondence one of the more interesting pieces I've received in the last month, when so many people have had an ax to grind about politics or something else they are passionate about … like, well, politics.

And so today I share, as I do periodically, some of the comments that have come across my desk recently, either through emails or via comments readers submit in writing to us when we seek feedback in billing statements.

Really like the Pickles cartoon. Can see why it is #1.

Thank you, but I need to note something else about Jason Krueger's email. It turns out I contacted him through a wrong e-mail. His address had the numbers “33” in them and I inadvertently typed “22” into the “send” space. Fortunately, the woman who got that errant email saw in the message thread the earlier e-mail Jason sent to our customer service department. She forwarded my message to him with a note, “This was sent to me by mistake.”

I had to get that off my chest. Back to other readers' comments.

Your readers are interested in the history of Linn County, especially Cedar Rapids. More columns, including photos, by Mark Hunter would be appreciated.

We are grateful for the periodic historical features Mark Stoffer Hunter and Jim DeLong write and for the Today in History notes we run daily. People like to reflect on news of the past. I personally like poring through old photos and news stories so much that I lose track of time when I enter our archives or a library. But we try to be current with the newspaper so I don't see us adding any other features at this time that look back.

Too much world news.

I included this comment because I usually report those to the contrary, from people who say we don't have enough nation and world news. Our focus remains local.

OK, one other thing about Jason Krueger's email. I got a response from him that he, indeed, took the error in the paper with humor but that there was more to the story. That person who forwarded my e-mail to him happened to have the same first and last name as his former wife, who still has the same last name he has.

This prompted Jason to ask the woman if she is his ex.

She is not. But he wanted to share that twist with me, and I emailed back that I would be sharing it with all of you.

I also feel as though I need to share my best wishes to Jason's wife, Nicole, on her marriage to someone with a good sense of humor.