Katie Couric smacks down New York Times TV critic Alessandra Stanley, without naming names. Stanley, who is apparently error-prone, made a slew of them in a recent appraisal of Walter Cronkite. And her copy editors didn’t do their jobs, either.

An appraisal on Saturday about Walter Cronkite’s career included a number of errors. In some copies, it misstated the date that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed and referred incorrectly to Mr. Cronkite’s coverage of D-Day. Dr. King was killed on April 4, 1968, not April 30. Mr. Cronkite covered the D-Day landing from a warplane; he did not storm the beaches. In addition, Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969, not July 26. “The CBS Evening News” overtook “The Huntley-Brinkley Report” on NBC in the ratings during the 1967-68 television season, not after Chet Huntley retired in 1970. A communications satellite used to relay correspondents’ reports from around the world was Telstar, not Telestar. Howard K. Smith was not one of the CBS correspondents Mr. Cronkite would turn to for reports from the field after he became anchor of “The CBS Evening News” in 1962; he left CBS before Mr. Cronkite was the anchor. Because of an editing error, the appraisal also misstated the name of the news agency for which Mr. Cronkite was Moscow bureau chief after World War II. At that time it was United Press, not United Press International.

[via Kottke]

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

— from Wear Sunscreen

I’ve been daydreaming this morning — reading about the differences between New York and San Francisco, as well as some recent advice about moving to San Francisco.

Who knows if we’d ever move. But it strikes me that I live in the biggest city in the U.S. by population, with tons of diversity and culture, and I rarely take advantage of it. (I’ve mentioned this before, and I say it not to complain, but merely to state a fact.) Whatever apartment we moved into would inevitably become messy and we still wouldn’t clean the bathroom as much as we should and we’d stay in too often.

So even if we stay in New York, I could at least try to get out more, try more new things, and keep a cleaner bathroom.

Wherever you go, there you are. It’s simpler to change yourself than to change your location. But it’s definitely not easier.

I’m sitting at the gate at San Francisco International Airport, waiting for my plane to board for the flight home. I’ve been here for a few days for a work-related conference (which you already know if you read my Twitter feed).

Sigh… I could totally live here. Maybe it’s just the novelty of the place… maybe it would get old. And I’d miss Broadway. And worry about earthquakes. (Which is silly, since I lived in Tokyo for three years, and only a few times did I ever feel a tremor.)

And California… it’s beautiful, but it’s environmentally unsustainable, isn’t it? And the state government and budget are a mess. On the other hand, its political system is like ancient Greece compared to Albany.

My company has an office here… so I wouldn’t even need a new job… but on the other hand, Matt would have to find a new job.

Anyway. California dreamin’.

This really is a beautiful state. I spent six weeks here when I was 14 years old. I would love to come back some time — drive all the way down the coast with Matt, stop in tons of places. (But first, get behind the wheel of a car again and practice driving, since I haven’t driven a car in about five years.) It would be wonderful.

I had a long, leisurely dinner with Thom and Jeff the other night, who moved out here a few years ago. They love it here. Jeff is from here, and Thom is from Virginia. Sometimes I feel like they are my and Matt’s West Coast counterparts.

Odd thought: people always say “out West” and “back East.” American historical bias, since the East Coast was settled first. But the West Coast was settled more than 150 years ago at this point. Linguistic tics persist. What do you call Arizona and New Mexico if you live in California? Out east?

Traveling is mind-expanding, even work-related travel.

Time to go “back East.” Sigh…