Utila News

Having been away from Utila for a month and a half now, JA and I are increasingly curious about the happenings on the little rock. Surely someone has fallen out of a tree or run his golf cart into the front of the bank. Without access to the evening Utila-Tonight-type show called "HQTV" (hosted by our friend Shelby McNab and produced solely by cameraman Dolfito), the best way to find out the goings on is by talking to someone there or reading the online version of the local newspaper.

The Utila East Wind comes out monthly and professes readily to being more of a community bulletin board than a source for hard-hitting, investigative journalism. There are pictures of people who have come back to the island after time away, notices of deaths, articles about whale shark sitings, and frequent lectures by long-time island resident and former professional skier Gunther (originally from Austria and now in his 60s yet still training like he's going out for the Olympics) about how we need to get in better shape.

Despite my understanding of the paper's role and penchant for typos I was still amused while reading the July issue to see the following in an article about this year's Mister Utila competition:

All the guys up there on stage had a great time and showed us their talents as well as how well they can move on the dance floor. Delfito (spelling?) took home the crown and is the official Mr. Utila 2007. We welcome him to crown Miss Utila on opening night of the Carnival this year.

They didn't fact-check the spelling of his name? There are two main streets on Utila...If they walked out the door they probably would have run into him. Or perhaps whoever was covering the event could have, you know, asked him then. Okay, maybe they put that note there to remind themselves to look into it and then forgot. But still, the paper comes out once a month. Maybe I've found pro bono work on Utila.

(I realize I have now opened the floodgates for corrections on my own grammar and punctuation. Please be kind.)