SIDELINES...

GRAUNIAD

To celebrate 200 years of publication, the Guardian, famed for its misprints, reprinted some of its most celebrated ones. These included: “We misspelled the word misspelled twice, as mispelled, in the Corrections and clarifications column on September 26”, and a review mentioning the band “Frightened Rabbi”, corrected the next day to “[That] should have been… Frightened Rabbit”. A similar loss of a letter rendered a Miles Davis album “Sketches of Pain” instead of “Spain” and created the digestive complaint “irritable bowl syndrome”. Guardian, 12 May 2021.

STUCK SPANIEL

When a 93-year-old woman from Matlock, Derbyshire, reported her Cavalier King Charles spaniel, Toby, missing after not seeing him for two days, PC Tammy Wood visited the house to take a statement. While there, she dropped something, and when she bent down to pick it up, saw Toby’s face peering out from under a recliner chair where he had become stuck. After being freed, he was none the worse for his ordeal. Metro, 3 June 2021.

TOUR DE-STRUCTION

Chaos descended on the Tour de France cycle race after a spectator stepped out of the crowd in front of the cyclists to hold up a sign to TV cameras. The sign, reading “Allez Opi-Omi” (Go Granny and Grandpa), caught the arm of rider Tony Martin, knocking him from his bike and caused a domino effect, bringing down 20 more cyclists in one of the worst crashes in the history of the race. One rider was injured so badly that he had to withdraw. The spectator fled but is being sought by police and risks up to a year in prison. Metro, 28 June; Sun,

1 July 2021.