First Non-Catholic Pope

Last week’s election of a new pope and the attendant headlines bring to mind the legendary “Non-Catholic Pope” typo in the Banner-Herald on Oct. 16, 1978, when the first non-Italian pope, the Polish Cardinal Wojtyla, was elected. I recall standing on Broad Street at the Lumpkin corner reading in the window of the newspaper box (Would I ever buy one?) the giant headline proclaiming, “First Non-Catholic Pope!” Ever since, I have kicked myself for not depositing a quarter, or whatever they cost at the time, and making off with the whole stack. It could not technically have been branded theft, because very shortly the Banner-Herald carrier was back to grab those papers for destruction and replace them with the updated, Non-Italian pope version.

To refresh my memory and check the date, I did some unaccustomed research and hit upon former B-H Executive Editor Jason Winders’ 2005 editorial on the subject of that famous typo, a model of the droll Winders style. But what’s this? Winders claimed (http://onlineathens.com/stories/042405/opi_20050424053.shtml) that it was not a headline at all, merely the “cutline” beneath the picture of the new pope. He said that everybody remembered it as a 90-point headline, but that actually it was only a cutline. I know Winders to be, in spite of his drollery, a man of the highest intellectual honesty and integrity, so I do not think for a moment that he would try to twist history for any self-serving purpose. I can only wonder if the paper Winders had before him when he wrote his column was the original or a later edition. Supposedly, every single copy of the original was destroyed, lest any survive to provide mocking evidence of the mistake. Since I saw it with my own eyes—through the window of the paper box, where the cutline would have been difficult to read—and can still see it in my mind’s eye, do I remember incorrectly? It really doesn’t matter: the words live in legend, even if inaccurately—a fine fate for a typo.

Send Us Yr Pix

The picture above came in from Dottie Alexander in response to our request for “reader-submitted snapshots of live music and various weird/funny/cool things seen around Athens for possible publication in print and/or online.” Keep ‘em coming; this will be an ongoing feature. Send pictures to [email protected] or use the Twitter/Instagram hashtag #flagpolephotos. As Randolph Holder used to say, “The news depends on you.”

Cats Love Flagpole

From Lindsay Porter at the humane shelter to our Special Agent Cindy Jerrell, who does “Adopt Me” every week, “I also wanted wanted to let you know that Walter, the big black cat who was one of the feature cats in last week's Flagpole, was reclaimed after being lost (actually stolen) for TWO YEARS! His owner saw his picture in the Flagpole (which she said she hardly ever reads) and recognized him immediately. She and her little girl were so, so happy to have him back!”

Footnote to History 

In response to my recent columns on the trials of the Athens Eight, attorney Alan Alexander reminds me that he took our conviction all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where they declined to hear it, because they were absorbed by “more important matters,” which turned out to be Watergate. Fitting that Dick Nixon sealed our fate.