Posted: Tuesday, February 23, 2010, 6:22 PM | 0 comments |
 

TECHNOLOGY TALE
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 This couldn't have happened at Squaw Valley.

 A New York sports writer was busy cranking out a deadlin ice-dancing  story on Saturday night. When he was finished and his computer's filing system requested the story's name, he typed in the name he thought he had given it, "Icedancing". Sounds logical enough, right? Well, our harried New York friend had forgotten that he'd actually named this story "Icedance". 

 Unfortunately dfor him, there was a story named "Icedancing" in his computer. And that's the one that got sent to to his offices in New York.

 Alas, the story he filed was one he had written about the ice-dancing competition at the 2006 Olympics in Turin. His editors didn't notice. They simply assumed he had typed the wrong dateline on the story, changed Turin to Vancouver and published the story.

 The four-year-old story ran in the paper's entire final edition. Only two readers bothered to complain -- and one was a fellow sportswriter. That says something not only about the dangers of technology but also about the sports-reading habits of New York sports fans.    
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About Phil Sheridan, Frank Fitzpatrick and Clem Murray
Reporter Frank Fitzpatrick is covering his seventh Olympic Games and has yet to win a medal in anything except caffeine consumption. He has also been the beat writer for the Phillies, Eagles and Penn State football.

Columnist Phil Sheridan has been writing about Philadelphia sports since graduating from Temple University in 1985. The Vancouver Games are Phil's sixth consecutive Olympics. He is determined to do exhaustive research on the fresh seafood and locally made beers and wines in Vancouver and Whistler.

Photographer Clem Murray covered the Lake Placid Winter Olympics 30 years ago. He has covered the Eagles in their two Super Bowl runs; the Phillies in a couple of World Series (back in the 80s); the Sixers' 1983 championship; a couple of Stanley Cup runs by the Flyers; and the Nittany Lions.

For more Olympics coverage, visit the Philly.com Olympics page.
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