Surprising news and brief site visit report

[sheenaghpugh]

While on the way to the gig in Wellington and idly reading the Indy, I was momentarily astonished by their assertion, in an article on the nutcase pseudo-philosopher Ayn Rand, that she had been married to "the writer Frank O'Connor". I know little of Rand's biog, but am a fan of O'Connor and was sure he'd never been married to any such person (he was far too bright). Sure enough, a quick google later established that it was some obscure US actor (and florist!) of the same name the lady had stuck her hooks in. So if I could find that out in a few moments, why couldn't the Indy? I thought serious national newspapers were meant to take more care than that.

Wellington; nice audience, fairly dull-looking town for Shropshire, which is blessed with some very pretty small towns. This one was evidently never home to any great architect, though it did have a literary association - Mr Grumpy, aka Philip Larkin, was once the librarian and was apparently very rude both to and about his customers. No surprise there, then....

Comments

[lady-schrapnell.livejournal.com]

Yes, indeed, that was a very careless mistake to have printed.

The confusion between Ayn Rand's husband and the writer Frank O'Connor has happened before at least once before, but with far more excuse. My father was living in Brooklyn and was friendly with a local newsagent. One morning he was very surprised when the man slapped down the paper and snapped 'There's an article about your wife' in a tone of disgust. That confusion was cleared up easily and quickly, at least.

Thanks for pointing this out, btw, as I've passed it on to my mother who will try to Do Something about It. (steepholm alerted me.)

[sheenaghpugh]

I think that's wise of your mother - it's amazing how these baseless assertions gain credibility if printed a few times. This is one time they can't blame wikipedia either - I checked, and they got it right.