It’s a Total Cabal Going Down Around Here.

You know you’ve hit new lows when you start spicing up your workday with inane office competitions. At a happy hour last week, a group of editors decided it would be fun to have a “word of the week” challenge: see how many times you can fit said word into news stories and court write-ups.

This week’s word: cabal. Code for scandal; plot; intrigue.

We managed three entries on this staff, which is a rather weak showing but, for an uncommon word, too much exposure could bust it all wide open.

Here were our sentences:

• “The complaint alleged that [Company X]’s advertising practices were deceptive and misleading, a cabal to profit off of that which was freely offered for exceptional protection.”
• “In the alternative, the plaintiff argued that [Party1] and other [Party2] operatives had a cabal encouraging consumers to post defamatory content for their own financial gain and were partly responsible for the development of the messages.”
• And, my favorite, “[Mr. X] believed himself defamed by a blog authored by his former coworker, [Ms. Y]. On her blog, [Ms. Y] described sexual cabals and exploits with various men on Capitol Hill, one of whom she identified as [Mr. X’s initials.]”

 

All this fun aside, things have been pretty screwy around these parts. Our little leap day mishap—where we erroneously published an entire issue—was only the beginning. Last week, we (read: I) somehow managed to release an issue to the general public with a little xxx where each page number should have been. Yeah, that was pretty cool.

Today’s goings-on, though, top the all-time list of why Magda should be sacked immediately for gross incompetence. I interviewed a somewhat important legal guy last week. I met, we talked, it was nice. In my story, though? I totally spelled his name wrong. Totally. Say his name was John Johnston. My crazy little mind turned this into Joe Johnson. No reason, really; just plain careless stupidity. I had his card right there. I had met him, just hours before. His press manager called me today, when the story hit their desk. I don’t think I could apologize enough; it is exactly my job to get this right. And it’s too bad, too, because I will probably never talk to them again, and they were really nice. GOD I hate my life sometimes.

They say bad things come in threes, yes? So I should be off the hook for awhile? Memo to the universe: cease your badness cabal. Anytime now. Seriously.