The Press: 50,000 Times

Last September the austere London Times, most reverend of Britain's newspapers, apologized to its readers for a mistake perpetrated in its youth. Published every weekday throughout the year except on Good Friday, Christmas and Boxing Day,* the Times blamed a careless 18th-Century staff for an error which had caused the serial number on its front page to exceed the proper figure by 23. The mistake, said the Times, would be rectified by numbering 23 issues with the same number: 49,950. Last week, with the grievous error atoned for and corrected, the Times proudly printed its true 50,000th issue. For the occasion...