"A capsule summary on Wednesday for a news analysis article about Greece’s persistent economic problems misidentified the people who are growing more reluctant to continue paying the country’s bills. They are Greece’s lenders, not its leaders."

"Executive Outcomes was hired by several African governments during the 1990s to put down rebellions and protect oil and diamond reserves; it did not stage coup attempts." —Ah, it's one of those annoying days on the New York Times correction page, when the paper can only report what you have down cold, which it'll never get, and so they have to face up to complaints from global mercenary outfits. Shells within shells! Executive Outcomes (such a good name!) became a child of Strategic Resource Corporation, and contracted for Sandline International, both of which helped run the Sierra Leone "civil war," and which is a sibling to Aegis Defence [...]

"The physicist Brian Cox is not an elected fellow of the Royal Society, as we described him (Better than rock'n'roll, 24 March, page 5, G2). He has a university research fellowship. The same article described Cox as standing 'legs akimbo'. Arms can be akimbo, legs can't. It means hands on hips, with the elbows outwards."

A correction in this morning's Times

A picture caption on Thursday about the wreck of a boat thought to be carrying refugees seeking asylum in Australia misidentified the ocean surrounding Christmas Island, where the wreck occurred. It is the Indian Ocean, not the “South Pacific.”

may remind older readers of one of that paper's most classic corrections, now almost a decade old. Because of an editing error, an article on Tuesday about the court case in Chile against Gen. Augusto Pinochet misidentified the ocean into which the military apparently dumped the father of Viviana Díaz, a woman who leads a group of surviving family members. It [...]

"An editorial on Friday about the Supreme Court’s review of a California law barring the sale or rental of violent video games to minors incorrectly described the content of three games. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Postal 2, and Duke Nukem 3D graphically depict many repellent acts. They do not depict rape." —What happens when people defend the right of unpleasant speech who have still never walked a mile in Tommy Vercetti's shoes. Still, a counterpoint: "Wait, does getting your money back from a hooker by beating her up count as rape?"

"Because of an editing error, an article on Oct. 19 about people who have reached or are nearing their 100th birthday misstated the number of presidencies they have lived through. It is 18 (Taft through Obama), not 19." But if they can just hold out for another two years…

A phone embedded in the short story "Lonely Heart," in what seems to be a copy of "Guys & Dolls: The Stories of Damon Runyon."

Produced in partnership with Storyboard.

Blue ripped up most kites and flushed the pieces, but some, especially those received in the exercise yard, he ate.

Blue, who is 20 years old, knew that even temporary possession of written notes was against the rules, but he shrugged it off as a necessary risk. One such "kite" was an invitation, which read, "Look we cookin…send some kinda meat for your bowl." It was scrawled across a scrap of notebook paper, folded seven times [...]

"An item in the Extra Bases baseball notebook last Sunday misidentified, in some editions, the origin of the name Orcrist the Goblin Cleaver, which Mets pitcher R. A. Dickey gave one of his bats. Orcrist was not, as Dickey had said, the name of the sword used by Bilbo Baggins in the Misty Mountains in 'The Hobbit'; Orcrist was the sword used by the dwarf Thorin Oakenshield in the book. (Bilbo Baggins’s sword was called Sting.)"

"Because of an editing error, the Evening Hours column last Sunday misstated the name of a guest at the opening of the Winter Antiques Show at the Park Avenue Armory. She is Michele Majer, not Kermina Suzani (the name for the style of carpet shown in the picture immediately to the right)."

"Owing to an editing error, we said that Simply Red singer Mick Hucknall slept with more than 1,000 women in a three-year period during the mid-80s. That was meant to be more than 1,000 a year, based on his estimate of an average of three such encounters a day, as stated elsewhere in our stories (A new flame: Hucknall apology to 1,000 women he bedded, page 19, 3 December; 'I feel a bit like the antichrist', page 3, Film & Music)."

"An article on Tuesday about the foolishness of making precise predictions in science misstated the number of developments that the writer said would not come true in 2011. There were 9, not 10. The article also misstated the date of a correction in which The New York Times finally apologized for having ridiculed, in 1920, the idea that rockets would one day be able to leave the surface of the Earth. The correction was published on July 17, 1969 — a day after the Apollo 11 moon mission began; it was not published on June 17 of that year."

The notoriously thorough folks at the New Yorker have sorted through our collection of profanities and when they first appeared in that esteemed periodical, and have offered a few helpful correctives. Of special interest: Mary Gaitskill, not Tad Friend, was the first person to get the common usage for fellatio into the magazine, a mistake which the publication generously forgives by noting that, "This error is more understandable. Most people would search for 'blowjob,' whereas New Yorker style is two words: 'blow job.'"

"An article on March 17 about wearing stretch yoga pants at work misspelled part of the name of a woman who frequently wears them. She is Lisa Berlenbach Dixon, not Bierlenbach. Ms. Dixon pointed out the error in an e-mail received by The Times on April 13."

A correspondent takes issue with my characterization of the local apothecary as a crucible of spiritual malaise. She notes that: "Your POV may be very gender-specific. Most NYC women I know LOVE going to Duane Reade because it's fun to stock up on stuff like hair products, makeup, cleaning supplies and tampons/pads. I can't tell you how many times I've had a female friend tell me she 'accidentally' dropped $100+ in a Duane Reade. Shorter: Needs more ovaries." Similar sentiments have been expressed in the post itself, leading me to realize that, not for the first time, my cock has clouded my cogitations. Apologies; I forgot how you [...]

"'How does that work exactly?' asked a reader, on being informed in a column that 'an unauthorised autobiography of London's mayor' was in the works. This was an editing error (Diary, 25 November, page 39)."

I dunno, this made me laugh: "This article was amended on 8 November 2010. The original had 'sceptic' tank, and we're sure the writer meant septic. This has been corrected." I'm picturing the tank curling a suspicious eyebrow and being all, "I don't buy it." Like the Dr. House of toilets. But maybe that's just me.