By David Ettinger
A Sweet Memory
I thought after some rather “heavy” blogs over the past few days, I’d like to lighten things up, sharing a sweet memory from my early journalism days.

I began my journalism career in 1980 working for The Round Up, the school paper of New Mexico State University. Upon graduation in 1981, I was hired as a sportswriter by the Las Cruces (2nd-largest city in New Mexico) Sun-News. I eventually moved to the much-larger El Paso (Texas) Herald-Post in 1987, then to the even larger El Paso Times in 1987. In all, my newspaper days lasted just four months shy of 20 years.
But the “sweet memory” occurred in 1984 while at the Sun-News.
A New Writing Discipline
Though I enjoyed being a sportswriter, my son Aaron was born in November of 1983, and my wife didn’t want me out nights covering sporting events. Also, I wanted to get away from “the toy department” of the newspaper and move into more “adult” endeavors.
One day, a copy desk position opened, the managing editor offered it to me, and I pounced on it. Back then, each member of the copy desk was responsible for a different section of the newspaper.
The sections were local news, national news, world news, entertainment, and business. The copy-desk editor determined the stories with which to fill the sections he or she was assigned to, write all headlines and captions for those sections, and edit every word.

For me, nothing was as fulfilling as being in charge of the op/ed (Opinion/Editorial) page. That was definitely the “weightiest” section of the paper as it included nationally-syndicated columnists as well as local pieces written by our staff.
When I joined the copy desk, I had never written an op-ed piece, and knew I would have to learn this particular discipline. Therefore, I studied our five most recent op/ed sections until I learned what it took to write an opinion piece.
My First Assignment
Four days later, our managing editor handed out the list of op/ed pieces he wanted for the coming week. One topic was “Corruption in the Mayor’s Office,” another “Should New Mexico Have a State Tax?” Neither was assigned to me.
When I looked at my assignment, I was baffled. With my mind working overtime trying to figure out what I was reading, I mulled it again and again. My assignment was: “The Dwingling Framlands of the Mesilla Valley.”
The Mesilla Valley is the region of Southern New Mexico where I lived; that I knew. But what in the world was “Dwingling Framlands.” I should have asked, but coming over from sports, I didn’t want to seem ignorant.

I delved into the past few issues of the paper to see if I could get a clue as to what I was supposed to write on, and finally hit upon a headline that brought everything into view: “Growers Lament the Dwindling Farmlands of the Mesilla Valley.”
Hah! “Dwingling Framlands” and “Dwindling Farmlands”! The managing editor had made what I still consider the most entertaining typo I’d ever seen. Relieved, I read the story, which wasn’t very inspiring, and proceeded to write a rather uninspiring op/ed piece. I mean, what was I supposed to say? That businesses gobbling up rich, fertile tracts of land and turning them into brick-and-mortar places of commerce was good?
Actually, I did have to balance out the farmers’ lament with the local business sector’s economic aspirations. It was quite the high-wire act!
A Blast!
As time went on and I wrote more such pieces, I became adept at it, and enjoyed the opportunity to share my “2 cents’ worth” with our readers.
Today, editorial pieces are a rich part of my blogging. Though I mostly write Bible-teaching articles, I like to mix it up with straight-up editorial posts based on the headlines of these amazing days. (My previous post, “Amid Global Turmoil, Israel Still the Key,” is a prototypical op/ed piece.) And, of course, the Covid-19 pandemic and the riots have provided plenty of op-ed material to keep me occupied.
I don’t know how many op/ed pieces I’ve written over the past 36 years, but it all started with the “Dwingling Framlands of the Mesilla Valley,” and has been a blast ever since!
Bruce Cooper
August 5, 2020
And you do it very well David, thank you!
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dettinger47
August 5, 2020
Thank you, Bruce.
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mrsmariposa2014
August 5, 2020
Oh, this gave me a good laugh! Those are the kind of typos I like. Thanks for sharing. 😊
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dettinger47
August 5, 2020
Thank you, Marisa.
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Blue Collar Theologian
August 5, 2020
Praise God for your gift of writing!
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dettinger47
August 5, 2020
Thank you, Mandy.
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Lady Quixote/Linda Lee
August 5, 2020
So… it occurred to me while I was reading this, that you couldn’t Google the word ‘Dwingling’ back in 1984. Then, thanks to my curious mind, I decided to do a search on ‘Dwingling’ to see what would pop up. Besides your article, of course.
After informing my search engine that I did not want the word ‘Dwindling,’ I wanted the results of ‘Dwingling’ only… let’s just say I was surprised by the results!
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dettinger47
August 5, 2020
I looked up dwingling, but Google kept changing it to dwindling. Based on your comment, however, maybe that’s a good thing!
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dettinger47
August 5, 2020
Just looked it up on Bing. Definition doesn’t surprise me!
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Lady Quixote/Linda Lee
August 5, 2020
I was about to say try Bing..
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Lady Quixote/Linda Lee
August 6, 2020
This is too funny — just now, when I saw that you liked my last comment on this post, I noticed that ‘Dwingling’ isn’t the only misspelled word in your title. Apparently, my brain auto corrected ‘Framlands’!
I just Googled — or rather, Binged — the word Framlands. Apparently, it is a thing, too! But not as weird as Dwingling. 😀
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dettinger47
August 6, 2020
I’ll have to look that one up as well!
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Angel at Watchyourlifeinpictures
August 5, 2020
Israel is the fulcrum of history and I love her. 🙂
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dettinger47
August 5, 2020
Amen!
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seekingdivineperspective
August 5, 2020
At least you got it resolved quickly. My blog had the title “Seeking Divine Perpsective” proudly displayed across the top of the page for more than a year before Bruce mentioned it to me. (“>Good grief!<")
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dettinger47
August 6, 2020
Shame on all of us who didn’t see it!
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seekingdivineperspective
August 6, 2020
Y’all knew what I MEANT, right? 😉
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dettinger47
August 6, 2020
Of cuorse. I mean, course.
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Tom
August 6, 2020
I enjoyed the reminiscing, David!
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dettinger47
August 6, 2020
Thank you, Tom.
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heavensreef
August 9, 2020
I so enjoy reading all your posts. It gives me joy knowing that YOU enjoy writing them so very much! Thank you for your faithfulness here……thank you for who you are in CHRIST JESUS David!! You are such an inspiration to so many…….giving all the glory to GOD for sure! Oh how HE blesses us!
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dettinger47
August 9, 2020
Thank you, Maxine!
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