Thread: What a hoot!

http://link.toolbot.com/dallasnews.com/58594

Nonsense pulled offline in a hurry

Mayor apologizes for strange phrase found on Anna's Web site

12:00 AM CST on Tuesday, January 30, 2007

By ROY APPLETON / The Dallas Morning News
rappleton@dallasnews.com

Offensive? Stupid? Puzzling?

Whatever it was, a city Web site posting left Anna officials scrambling for a while Monday.

Visitors to www.annatexas .gov can read about the Collin County city's history, demographics, development plans and public meetings.

And until about 11 a.m. Monday, those who clicked the Mexican flag icon, to read Mayor Kenneth Pelham's welcome message in Spanish, received this online oddity:

"Ya donta speaka Italiano."

Say what?

"I don't think it's funny in the least," the mayor said Monday, as city staff tried to remove the phrase from its almost two-month-old site. "We're trying to find out who did it."

City officials learned of the posting Monday morning from a concerned caller. "It's embarrassing," City Manager Lee Lawrence said.

Turns out a former employee of the city's Web site developer and manager, eConsortian, probably typed the phrase during site construction to hold a place for future content. After all, the Mexican and Italian flags are similar in appearance, with vertical green, white and red stripes. The phrase, not meant for public viewing, apparently was missed during city review of the site, said Al Zwanenburg, company president.

"If you want to blame someone, blame me," he said, chuckling. "We aren't in the business of offending anybody, but I don't think the remark was offensive. It's just a silly statement.

"If that bothers you, you've got some other issues," said Mr. Zwanenburg, who said he is a Dutch immigrant "proud to be an American."

His Flower Mound company replaced the phrase with that old standby: "Under Construction," to the relief of Mr. Pelham.

"I apologize if anyone takes offense," he said.

And if his Web site manager didn't share his concern, so be it, the mayor said.

"Everybody takes it a different way."

That Dutchman has become a Texan. What a rotten sense of humor.

Dixie

I kinda like it. Click the flag to read the mayor's message in spanish and get "Ya donta speaka Italiano."

Why scramble to take it down if nobody'd complained in 2 months.