As a journalist, it is really important to get your spelling right and your facts straight, or your own mistakes will be spread to the world, and everyone, in turn, will take your word for it.
So with that, I'd like to share with you all a story from an Australian newspaper, written by an author who wrote a book about about living for a year in Rio.
1. After spending a whole year in Brazil, I really, really hope that you realize that the language spoken here is in fact Portuguese, and not Spanish. I'm in doubt because you referred to "barrios" twice (bairro, in Portuguese), and your lead centered around a character named "El Cigarro." Unless the guy is Latino (which I find unlikely), his correct name would be "O Cigarro."
2. The mountain in Ipanema is called "Dois Irmãos," [Two Brothers] not "Dois Irmos." The famous gay street in Ipanema is called "Farme de Amoedo," not "Farme de Amoeda." It's Zazá Bistro, not Za Za Bistro. These kind of mistakes are akin to calling New York landmarks Rockefelle Center and Madisom Avenue.
3. Not all gringas have "granny bums" or wear "prudish European costumes" to the beach. If you'd spent a year here, I'd hope you'd have invested in at least one Brazilian bathing suit to try to blend in.
4. Roberta Sudbrack's restaurant (one of the hippest in Rio) is located in Jardim Botânico, not Ipanema. It's close, but definitely not the same neighborhood--they don't even border each other, since they're separated by the lagoon. Would you list a restaurant as being in Soho if it was actually in Chelsea?
The bottom line is that the anything goes attitude that pervades beach culture in Brazil has nothing to do with journalistic integrity, and there are no excuses for such glaring mistakes in a major newspaper story.
Another thing - the "black volcanic peaks of Dois Irmos" features a double error. Not only is the name wrong, the peaks are not volcanic, nor are they black.
Posted by: ali la loca | September 30, 2008 at 08:03 AM
Excellent point!! I was so busy being horrified by the other mistakes that I missed that. Did I miss any others?
Posted by: Rio Gringa | September 30, 2008 at 10:16 AM
I can't even read it! It's too painful.
Posted by: M :) | September 30, 2008 at 10:36 AM
I stopped reading at "Yemenja", you can add that to the list of names that he screwed up.
Painful indeed.
Posted by: Silvia | September 30, 2008 at 07:25 PM
There's no way that she lived there for a year. . . do you think that she even went to Rio? I need to get the book, but I can't justify spending money on it.
Posted by: M :) | September 30, 2008 at 08:46 PM