"The Litella"

The best bloggers tend not to merely surreptitiously delete their mistaken posts. Rather, they acknowledge having screwed up, leaving the initial, erroneous post intact, and typically offering a sheepish acknowledgment, sometimes effected with a judicious use of the strikethrough coding.

This phenomenon is entertaining enough on its own merits, but would be even more more entertaining were it to have an evocative, appropriate name like, say . . .

. . . the litella.

This is, of course, an homage to Gilda Radner's character, Emily Litella, from the Not Ready for Primetime Players era of "Saturday Night Live." As Wikipedia explains (at least for today) Litella would launch into a spirited tirade on an obscure topic only to be told by the Weekend Update anchor, usually Jane Curtin, that, for example, the topic of national concern was "endangered species" and not, as Litella had claimed, "endangered feces." At this point, Litella would smile sweetly into the camera and intone, "never mind."

Here we see Kevin Drum committing what I would like to see referred to as a litella. After confusing Wonkette Ana Marie Cox's husband with a similarly named cultural critic, Drum acknowledges his error, by writing:

"UPDATE: That's Christopher Lehmann, not Nicholas. I knew that."

. . . but the Litella-esque quality of the error is better reflected in the comments section, where "Dad" responds to a clarification by responding, a la Litella:

"Chris Lehman, not Nicholas Lehmann."

Well. Hunh. Then... never mind.

Since I believe that I am coining this term, I now proclaim that the following rules apply to the prospective identification of a post as a litella.

1.) The argument in question must be both vigorous and erroneous.
2.) The error must be central to the argumentative core of the post. Tangential errors and typos do not count.
3.) The argument's error must be acknowledged by the initial poster, preferably cheerfully. (In all fairness, Litella did sometimes call Jane Curtin a "bitch" for having pointed out her errors, but this was always followed by a sweet smile toward the audience).

I will, of course, be grateful to all who bring exemplary litellas to my attention.