The Label Proofreader
A label printer misspelled the word cheddar on three thousand packages, and the shipment became a collector's item on both sides of the ocean.
Every package of export cheese has a label. The label has the name, the weight, the ingredients and a date. We proofread them three times, and then a fourth time on a Friday afternoon after lunch. That was the Friday we missed one. The label said "Chedar." Three thousand packages had already gone out.
I found out on a Monday morning from a man at the receiving end, who wrote very carefully, "We have noticed a new variety." I was mortified. I spent about an hour composing an apology and then received a second message saying the buyers loved it. A food blogger had picked it up. A grocery store in a city I could not pronounce had put up a little sign: Chedar, Texas Edition.
The cheese sold out in nine days. People wrote to ask whether I would make more. I said it was the same cheddar, only with a different word. They said they wanted the different word. I called the label printer, who is a very serious man named Walt, and I asked him to print three thousand more with the same mistake. There was a long silence.
Walt printed them. He did it with great dignity, and he asked me to put a small note in my file that the error had been requested in writing. I said yes. I also asked him to add a second typo so the collection would be complete, and he declined. A man has his pride.
We now keep one label from the original run framed in the office. I check the rules on packaging at the dairy herd guides and I follow the farm.FM humor desk when I need someone to tell me I am not alone. I have been told that a misspelled word can be marketing. I have also been told it cannot. I choose to believe the first, with a good proofreader.
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