By Parker Heinlein,
Outdoors columnist for the
Bozeman Daily Chronicle (reprinted with permission)

In a recent editorial, Denny Rehberg, U.S. Representative for Montana, wrote about the slaughter of 120 sheep by wolves on a ranch near Dillon.

He called it a "grizzly" scene.

I suspect he meant "grisly" unless he was comparing the slaughter of the sheep to the University of Montana's loss on the gridiron last weekend which was without a doubt a "Grizzly" scene.

And I don't think he meant the slaughter looked like the work of grizzly bears, although griz are rather fond of sheep.

No, it looks like Rehberg, or whoever wrote his editorial, simply used the wrong word.

It happens, and not only to politicians.An editors note accompanying a story about a possible abduction in Livingston read: This story was changed ... to clarify the fact that Ellison was found tied up next to a "fense," not tied to a fence.

Clear as a belle (sic) now, isn't it?

About every two months, while working in the Chronicle newsroom, I would receive an envelope in the mail containing clippings of my recent articles with the grammatical errors and misspellings high-lighted.

It was both annoying and humbling. Annoying because the envelope bore no return address and humbling because the anonymous sender was always right.

I try hard to avoid errors in grammar, spelling and logic. My column is read and edited by two friends before it ever sees print. One of them is a professor of journalism at a state university and the other is just a smart guy who likes to read.

Rehberg should be so lucky. My editors would never let "grizzly" pass for "grisly." They always catch my "there" when I mean "their," and "fense" would never slip past them.

They do, however, give me a little slack on logic. While Rehberg's editorial on wolves was well-reasoned and invited comment, my recent column about the wolves eating all the elk was blunter and a bit sensational.

My editors know I don't believe wolves ate all the elk -- just most of them -- but they let me slide on my opinion.

Not so with a concerned reader who wrote me that he read the column with "surprise and disgust," and went to great length to point out how wrong I was.

And I hope I am. I hope the elk are just in hiding.

I fear, however, that they, like that herd of sheep near Dillon, have been killed. No doubt it was a grisly scene.

Parker Heinlein is at pman@mtintouch.net