Errors that defy explanation

Bill Walsh, national copy chief at the Washington Post, addresses mistakes of the desk in a post on his editing blog, Blogslot. Here's betting that you've felt this way before:

Even under the best of circumstances, there's a pretty good chance that a daily-newspaper copy desk of any significant size is going to screw something up in every edition. "Make sure everything is right, and clear, and not misleading" is a pretty challenging mandate, and daily deadlines are a bitch. Book publishers have months to get things right, and when is the last time you read an error-free book?

Bill doesn't exactly offer an explanation on how the "Old and Gas" headline made it into the paper. But sometimes there isn't an explanation (although you shouldn't try to tell management that). Sometimes, things just slip through.