Take my wife, please

Today’s Daily News contains this gem of a correction:

A July 19 John Baer column mistakenly reported that the wife of state Rep. W. Curtis Thomas accompanied him on a recent China trade trip. Mr. Thomas is not married. A travel list provided to the Daily News by an official of the House Speaker’s office contained inaccurate information.

This is done in the typical newspaper correction style: “It’s not our fault! We were given inaccurate information!” That’s par for the course, and for something like this, it’s certainly not a big deal. (And, hey, they avoided the whole “clarification” thing at least.)

What’s really confusing is that the DN asked somebody in the person in the office of the House Speaker — that’s John Perzel, for those keeping score at home — who was there, and got the reply that one of the people was W. Curtis Thomas’ wife, a person who doesn’t exist.

Or maybe Mr. Thomas is just another guy afraid of commitment.

Correction: 8.30.05 [DN]