“We was just calling them and we didn’t get no response.” A 13-year-old was quoted thus in a July 28 Local News story (“3 teenagers killed after running red light”). That elicited Naomi Rosenberg’s thoughtful question via the Internet:

“Is there a reason, other than calling attention to the witness’ lack of language skills and, thus, perhaps, the state of local education, to quote him, and other such men/women-on-the-street, verbatim? As a former journalist, I know that editors prefer direct quotes to paraphrasing; as an editor, I feel an obligation to protect and defend the English language. Might The Post consider (or, reconsider) its policy regarding ungrammatical quoting?” In responding, Managing Editor John Bartosek cited The Palm Beach Post’s stylebook: “Quotations should be corrected to avoid the errors in grammar and word usage that often occur unnoticed in speech but are embarrassing in print.”

“Generally,” said Mr. Bartosek, “we use a direct quote when it’s a good quote, in the sense that it’s powerful, pithy, ironic or funny, and it advances the story. One of our jobs is to make the complex clear, the convoluted understandable. If a quote doesn’t do that, we should paraphrase it in clear simple language.

“I think we goofed using that particular quote.”

“I wish that had been the only problem with our handling of that story,” he added, addressing an element that “a curious reader” and others called about. “After it was written, an editor mistakenly changed the story to show that the three people killed in that accident were teenagers. They were not; all three were adults. We published a correction on Page 2A the next day.”

Like Richard Boverie of West Palm Beach, I’m an unabashed fan of Post Opinion writer Stebbins Jefferson’s columns. Recently, Mr. Boverie wrote: “I think that Ms. Jefferson is on to something relevant and important in her well-written (July 28 column), ‘Gender equality, not superiority.’ As Agatha Christie’s Inspector (Hercule) Poirot might say, Ms. Jefferson activates my ‘little gray cells.’ . . . . As a minor technical aside,” he noted that the July 30 edition of Newsweek did not carry the cover story Ms. Jefferson referred to in the column. That was a slip; it was the cover of U.S. News.

In a bit of headline news, several readers commented on “Trey magnifique,” the July 30 Sports headline denoting the story of cyclist Lance Armstrong winning his third consecutive Tour de France title. “C.B. – they’ve done it again,” e-mailed Linda Leeds of West Palm Beach. “TREY (?!?!) magnifique – good grief, tres good grief! On the plus side, Tour coverage in The Post has been great!” Said Leah Schad of West Palm, “Oh, my, that Sports headline: ‘Trey magnifique?’ Let’s get it spelled right: t-r-e-s.”It is my duty, however, to inform those readers that they missed the headline writer’s artful play on trey, as in the Webster’s New World Dictionary definition: “1) a playing card with three spots, 2) the side of a die bearing three spots, or a throw of the dice totaling three.”

Another headline matter gives opportunity for a reminder that the staffers who write the articles in the paper rarely write the headlines that tend to determine whether we read a story. Headlines are written by the unsung heroes on the paper’s various copy desks. Lee Aiken’s phone message underscores those editors’ daily challenge of piquing interest while summing up articles in limited letters often on several lines with words that don’t leave readers wondering:”I’m sorry to turn into a bit of a curmudgeon about this,” said Mr. Aiken, “but I have to tell you that in the middle of a bad news day (July 18), the headline on Page 15A (“Volunteers / sought for / military / funerals”) really brought a smile to my face. I can’t imagine how bad the state of affairs has become in our country when we are now seeking volunteers for military funerals. Perhaps the headline might have said that ‘Volunteers are being sought to conduct military funerals,’ but, actually, the way it reads is absolutely flawless!”

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