mistakes-were-made

New Google Design Features AIG

Owen Thomas · 03/26/09 12:19AM

The Googleplex is a place apart. But are the brainiacs of Mountain View, Calif. so cloistered that they haven't heard of AIG's woes? Apparently so, judging by new graphics VP Marissa Mayer unveiled Wednesday.

The Real Jay McCarroll Blows Off Daily Beast Hoax: No One Reads Them

Richard Lawson · 11/13/08 05:11PM

Last week Tina Brown's new blog fest The Daily Beast ran a post featuring sketches by past Project Runway contestants as ideas for First Lady Elect Michelle Obama's inauguration gown. Then, oops!, The Smoking Gun figured out that the supposed entry by season one winner Jay McCarroll was actually a "hoax," perpetrated by a Canadian musician named Jay McCarrol (one L!) The author of the piece—who worked on it while at the now-shuttered Radar—had contacted him instead of the real designer by mistake and he just decided to run with it. So he sent the author the sketch, and the whole article ended up getting published on the Beast. Tina and Co. took the sketch down after the Smoking Gun reveal, and now the real McCarroll has weighed in on the whole kerfuffle: He tells the New York Observer:

Silly Gossip Girl Misquote Makes Us Laugh

Richard Lawson · 05/23/08 10:18AM

Oh I can hardly believe it! Such language! No, not from the mewling hormone vessels (ack, remember those days?) on Gossip Girl, but rather the people who recap the episodes. The Calendar section of the LA Times recently made a funny (and possibly optimistic about teen sex) blunder while quoting the show in a next-day postmortem. Jenny, our littlest sexbot, was talking about her secretly homo boyfriend Asher and said "Is that why we went to third?" To which one of her silly friends replied "You went to third?" (Now, tell me because I'm curious, what is third to you? To me that means taking a ferry to fellatio farms or a caravan to cunnilingus corners, but I could be off.) Anyway, the LAT recapper, Jon Caramanica, thought they said "dessert" instead of "third." So his write up read: "Is that why we went dessert?" "You went dessert?!?!?!" As if they'd just been scarfing down fried macaroni and cheese and the Navajo chicken sandwich at Cheesecake Factory and then they'd gone for the cake. I guess it still works, actually. [From Regret the Error]

Michelle Obama: Not In New York

Pareene · 05/22/08 08:44AM

Note to America: Michelle Obama is not in New York. Whoever sent in yesterday's Michelle Obama sighting to Gawker Stalker was incorrect. She was not in New York and "she has Secret service now so she does not enter through front doors," according to one emailer. Elitist. Anyway, Michelle's communications director wrote in last night to ask us to pull that sighting down, "as it is creating GREAT confusion." The truth is we are not sure how the map works and are unable to pull anything down from it. But we are still sorry about confusion. Shame on you, anonymous Gawker Stalker who submitted the sighting. By which we mean, obviously, Maureen Dowd.

FBI Foolishly Mistakes Germans For Murderers

Richard Lawson · 02/28/08 02:46PM

Oh dear. It seems the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI" for short), which normally just looks into reports of alien abductions or sends lone rogue agents to kill terrorists, has made a little mistake on a big international operation. The Bureau is on the hunt for James "Whitey" Bulger ("BUHL-jah"), the notorious South Boston mob boss, who is believed to be hiding out in Europe. Last year they'd received a photo, allegedly of Bulger and his girlfriend, taken by an American tourist in Italy. So, they showed it on Aktenzeichen XY, Germany's most popular crime show (well, second only to Tokio Hotel's What Is The No No?), and thousands of people began calling in saying they'd spotted the villainous couple.