More on the Non-Catholic Pope

Well, as it turns out, the “non-Catholic Pope” error in the Oct. 16, 1978 Athens Banner-Herald really was just in a photo cutline and not in a big headline, and it referred to the cardinal who was elected Pope. This copy, supplied by former reference librarian Theresa Flynn, provides the evidence. Why do we all remember it as a giant headline? Ms. Flynn has a good answer: “I think everyone remembers it as ‘a 90-point headline’ because the error was that large, if not the typeface.” 

The Pope reminiscence reminded former Flagpole Managing Editor Robin Littlefield, now a Nashville lawyer who also worked in pasteup at the Banner-Herald, of a B-H story about citizens lining up for shots in which an “i” got substituted for an “o.” I also remember a B-H wedding writeup in which the bride left for the wedding trip wearing a three-piece suit, except that, well, you know, that old “h” took the place of the “u.” I was told at the time that one was intentional, by a disgruntled pasteup person, for indeed the pages were actually put together by human hands at that point in our typographical history.

Truth to tell, nobody in the newspaper business can gloat over anybody else’s error, because we are all prone to making them, and the suit may hit the fan in our pages next time.

More on the Non-Persian Poet 

Coleman Barks, whose grizzled mug graced Flagpole’s cover two weeks ago, will read from his work in the University of Georgia Chapel on Thursday, Apr. 4, beginning at 7 p.m. His appearance is co-sponsored by The Georgia Review, UGA’s  quarterly journal of arts and letters, and by the University of Georgia Press, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary and has recently released Barks’ newest poetry collection, Hummingbird Sleep—which will be available for purchase at the event, along with his earlier UGA Press volume, Winter Sky: New and Selected Poems, 1968–2008. Barks, who is a very accessible and original poet in his own right, is known worldwide for his extensive work interpreting the 13th-century Sufi poet Jalal al-Din Rumi for modern audiences. The Big Red Book (HarperOne, 2010) is the latest of a dozen volumes that also include The Essential Rumi, The Soul of Rumi, and Rumi: The Book of Love. Recently, Coleman has returned to concentrating on his own writing, and he is known for what The Georgia Review calls “his melodic and powerful reading style, as well as for the sense of humor he interlaces with his incantatory and often spiritually charged poems.”