I was home sick from the paper Tuesday and off Wednesday, but my coworkers just told me this and it was too funny to not post.
We usually average somewhere between 12-15 obits a day (except Thursday, which is our busy day and usually lands at least 20). Of that number, we'll probably have about three pending notices, which are a notice that basically says "John Doe has died, full services announced later." Two lines, usually.
Now, on Tuesday, we had one actual, full obit and two pending notices. That's it. That breaks the record for least deaths in a day. Now, I was glad to hear this because I hated to call in on Tuesday when there's a lot of work to be done, but with so few obits, the other clerk, J, was able to get everything done without having to rush.
On Wednesday, however, the newsroom received a call from a very upset woman. Why was she upset? Was she a relative and there was an error? Did we not get a fax from her? Dear God, how did we mess up on three obits??
No. She was upset because SHE DIDN'T BELIEVE WE REALLY HAD THAT FEW OBITS.
Seriously. My boss R, and the editor, E, both told me about it. I thought it was just another case of an old lady calling to talk to us for no apparent reason (happens a lot), but E assured me that yes, the woman was ACTUALLY angry about it. She refused to believe that our area had only three deaths to make mention of in the paper, and thought that, for some reason, we must have been "hiding" some of the obituaries, or that there some other mischief I have no conception of afoot.
So, yeah, that has to be the least rational thing to get angry over EVER. "Not enough people died!"
Of course, my joke is "Well, I'm sorry, I was sick, I couldn't get out there and kill them all that day!"
We usually average somewhere between 12-15 obits a day (except Thursday, which is our busy day and usually lands at least 20). Of that number, we'll probably have about three pending notices, which are a notice that basically says "John Doe has died, full services announced later." Two lines, usually.
Now, on Tuesday, we had one actual, full obit and two pending notices. That's it. That breaks the record for least deaths in a day. Now, I was glad to hear this because I hated to call in on Tuesday when there's a lot of work to be done, but with so few obits, the other clerk, J, was able to get everything done without having to rush.
On Wednesday, however, the newsroom received a call from a very upset woman. Why was she upset? Was she a relative and there was an error? Did we not get a fax from her? Dear God, how did we mess up on three obits??
No. She was upset because SHE DIDN'T BELIEVE WE REALLY HAD THAT FEW OBITS.
Seriously. My boss R, and the editor, E, both told me about it. I thought it was just another case of an old lady calling to talk to us for no apparent reason (happens a lot), but E assured me that yes, the woman was ACTUALLY angry about it. She refused to believe that our area had only three deaths to make mention of in the paper, and thought that, for some reason, we must have been "hiding" some of the obituaries, or that there some other mischief I have no conception of afoot.
So, yeah, that has to be the least rational thing to get angry over EVER. "Not enough people died!"
Of course, my joke is "Well, I'm sorry, I was sick, I couldn't get out there and kill them all that day!"
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