Websters recalls 11 million books

Merriam-Webster, publisher of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, was forced to recall 11 million copies of the 2008 edition of the dictionary due to errors and additions inserted by its former copy editor. Derek Saucerhamm, lead copy editor for Merriam-Webster, is being sued by his former employer for $237.1 million, the overall price for every copy being recalled. "It is unbelievable that a person with such power would choose to abuse it on his last product before retirement," said John Morse, president and publisher of Merriam-Webster. "Mr. Saucerhamm had been with us for the past 47 years, and had been provided with a generous retirement package, but this is how he repays us." Saucerhamm's corrections were not at all subtle, including his personal opinion on such topics as Medicare, teenagers and retirement, or as he puts it, "when a hardworking man is forced to leave his job so some snot-nosed punk can ruin the legacy built over the past half century." Though the edition has many controversial entries within the text, the book is a cult favorite, due to entries like, "Annoying S.O.B.- See 'Andy Dick.'" "There have been thousands of requests for these books on Craigslist," said Jim Buckmaster, CEO of Craigslist.com. "People are paying ridiculous amounts of money and trading their valuables for a dictionary that, in conventional views, is useless. I have seen someone who is offering their Wii for a copy." Saucerhamm feels his actions are completely justified as a response to his former employer. He believes he will not be able to survive on Social Security with the instability of the economy. "After spending more than two-thirds of my life working in a profession that pays nothing, and finally moving up to a position I deserve, I get a gold watch and shove out the door," Saucerhamm said. "After refusing to respond to complaints, I sent a message they understood." The first error discoveries were made by Bob Blench, a member of Saucerhamm's copy editing staff. "We were starting our work on the 2009 edition, just to keep all of the consistents in to carry over for next year, when I found it," Blench said. "We had put 'Google' and 'to Google' in the 2001 edition in reference to the Web site, but it had been changed to 'What the hell is a Google anyway? I will not allow this word into my dictionary until someone can show me a live and breathing Google. What is it, some kind of bird?'" Blench said he got a good laugh out of the entry, but immediately ran it to Morse when he discovered it in the recently released edition. Morse knew who was responsible for the change after finding the following entry: "Saucerhamm, Derek - God almighty." Frederick Mish, editor-in-chief of Merriam-Webster, took charge of the situation of swapping out the erroneous editions for corrected ones, but ran into some issues along the way. "We didn't have any trouble with the large chain bookstores," Mish said. "We had had issues with the first edition of our Scrabble dictionary and fell into a similar problem. We only really had trouble with the independently owned stores. Many had only purchased so many copies, which had already been sold. We knew we had a problem on our hands, but not to the point where we're going door to door." Saucerhamm feels no remorse for his actions and is ready to fight in court on a counter-suit for his being forced into early retirement as a breech of his employment contract.