Yellowknife (July 06/01) - Doctors bury their mistakes. Journalists publish theirs -- so goes the old saw.

Mistakes come in all shapes and sizes, from misspelled names to 100-point headlines screaming things like "Pubic meeting turns nasty."

Reaction also varies widely, even for the same kind of error. Misspelled names provoke a mild chuckle in some and outrage in others.

For the reporters and editors responsible for them, errors always provoke the emotional equivalent of fingernails being scraped across a blackboard.

As they do in the biggest dailies and smallest weeklies, errors do make it through the fine-meshed, activated-charcoal mistake filter between writers and readers at Yellowknifer and News/North.

Like the one two years ago that prompted a few angry letters. In a story about elders teaching youth about the traditional Inuit watercraft, the reporter used a more traditional spelling of kayak.

It turns out a misplaced 'u' can completely changed the meaning of a word. Instead of a small seaworthy boat with covered decks, the story discussed a "quayaq," which means to have sex. It had a significant impact on the story for Inuktitut-speaking readers.

"I could make a huge list of the typos I've seen," said reader and government worker Raymond Bourget. "I've seen some hilarious ones but I can't think of them right now.

"Tell you what, I'll take a look through the paper and give you a call back."

Have at 'er, Ray.

Nunavut's capital has taken a beating at the hands of reporters, again because of the tendency to type u after every q. In Inuktitut Iqualuit means "people with stinky bums."

"I was just thinking of a comment someone made to me last week," said Bruce Smith. "They said, 'I wish the Yellowknifer would read its stories before they go in the paper.' "

Er, Bruce, tell your friend we do. Several times.

Bourget just called back. He found examples from a recent edition. It was an embarrassing list, collected on short notice, but still makes up only a tiny fraction of the 15,000 or so words written for each paper.

Bourget then admitted mistakes sometimes creep into his writing. They do into any writing, including the unedited official record of what is said in the legislative assembly.

MLA Jim Antoine, following a recent visit to one of his communities, thanked the people for the hospitality they showed him. The next day, the official transcript had him thanking the village for "the feast and the drug dance."

As always at a newspaper, the final word and responsibility goes to the publisher: "For God's sake, be more careful," said Jack Sigvaldason. "And use spell-check every time!"