We're still wondering about the deal between the Times Standard and the late Eureka Reporter that mandates the T-S running E.R. op ed pages twice a week. Does anyone read Peter Hannaford's submitted editorials before they go to print? Is the page sent as camera-ready copy? Now we make little copy-editing mistakes every week in the Journal, but nothing matching today's lead editorial on the E.R. opinion page. Since they don't post the page online (do they?) I'll try to reproduce it as closely as possible:

A break in the clouds

Humboldt County's economic weather looks gloomy, what two chains with local stores shutting down, disappoint Christmas sales, two sawmills cutting back and a below-average crab season. There is a bit of blue sky among the clouds, however, The Humboldt Creamery, now in its

80th set a sakes-record in 2008 of $130 million. That represents an 18 percent increase over 2007 sales.

A cooperative owned by 50 Humboldt dairy farm families, the Humboldt Creamery turns out a prodigious amount of products: 22 million pounds of milk powder, 11 million gallons of ice cream and 4 million gallons of milk. The co-op's president, Rich Ghilarducci, attributes this volume to to "strong demand in world markets." As evidence, the creamery last year became the largest exporter of ice cream to Mexico.

How's that for bringing dollars INTO our county?

How many mistakes can you spot? a) in the first sentence b) overall

Mr. Hannaford, is this really what you submitted? Did you inadvertantly send the wrong draft? Or did some mischievous T-S typesetter alter your copy?

And while we're asking questions, didn't anyone tell you that co-ops are the first step down the slippery slope to socialism?

Update - Jan. 27: We emailed Mr. Hannaford asking about the typos and just heard back:

Thank you for your note. We winced when we say the typos. It wasn't the Times-Standard's fault. Our regular copy editor was away and Yours Truly was left to do it on the run. Mea culpa. (PS--The regular copy editor is back this week). -- Peter Hannaford