Was it intended as a prank, or was it just sloppiness on the part of a 17th-century typesetter? Regardless, a rare and much-sought-after version of the Bible going under the hammer next week is still raising eyebrows – and getting laughs – centuries later.
Why all the fuss? Well, it all comes down to a tiny omission, of just three letters. Scan down the page listing the Ten Commandments, and have a close read of No. 7 – you know, the one about not cheating on your spouse. It clearly states: Thou shalt commit adultery.
Described by Bonhams as the "infamous and extremely scarce Wicked Bible," it was published in 1631 and, when the error was discovered, the 1,000 copies printed were recalled and set to be burned. About about nine of them are believed to have survived.
And while it raises a chuckle now, Charles I didn't find it funny at the time, as Bonham's description of Lot No. 5 reads. The two printers were summoned by the King to the Star Chamber, where they were found guilty (which is a pretty good bet when you're appearing before the Star Chamber), fined £300 ($600) and lost their licence to print.
So for anyone looking for a free pass on their marriage vows, the auction house estimates it will fetch £10,000 to £15,000.
Amazon's all-star reviewer
If you were having a novel published, you could do worse than have it reviewed by Harriet Klausner. The Amazon.com book critic, who died earlier this month, faced a heap of criticism herself after it was revealed she had chalked up more than 31,000 reviews, all of which seemed to follow a template (two-paragraph plot summary; one-paragraph assessment) before awarding the book either four or five stars.
She once could boast the honour of being Amazon's top reviewer, until the company tweaked the algorithm for determining rankings, sending hers tumbling to 2,423, as her reviewer profile shows.
But she's not the only offender. Earlier this month, as Fortune reported, Amazon filed a lawsuit ("John Does 1-114") in the state of Washington against more than 1,000 people who posted fake reviews for $5 (U.S.) a shot through a website called Fiverr.
It's not Amazon's first time at the rodeo on this one: In April it sued the self-explanatory-named Buyamazonreviews.com, a service which provided four- and five-star reviews for an author's product.
It's a worrying trend for booksellers trying to maintain the integrity of the reviewing system, but apparently a nascent market niche for writers with no scruples.
Next week, Disclosures will expose the worst offenders of this practice. (Small-denomination bills in brown envelopes will keep you off the list.)
FCC puts telcos on lockdown
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has just made it a little easier for America's prison population to reach out and touch someone.
"With the cost of a call sometimes ballooning to $14 per minute once inside prison walls," the regulator said in a news release last week, it passed a motion cutting rates on local and in-state long distance calls and lowering the existing cap on interstate calls.
The move, the FCC stated, was in part motivated by the fact that "contact between inmates and their loved ones has been shown to reduce the rate of recidivism."
It may be good news for the incarcerated and their families, but it's a "colossal error" threatening the existence of some telcos, Securus Technologies Inc. chief executive officer Richard Smith says. He may not be exaggerating: Earlier this month, S&P downgraded the Dallas company's credit rating in light of the impending FCC regulations.
Securus is among those telcos that have built their business models around high-margin service to the nation's imprisoned and their family members through phone calls and face-time hookups. The home page of Securus's website invites readers to "Receive a call today!" and Visit an inmate from home!"
Securus says it will appeal the FCC ruling.
In praise of newspaper writers
Calling all jaded journalists: Hedge fund billionaire Paul Tudor Jones may have a job for you.
"The single most important thing you need to learn for any job in business is to how to communicate," Mr. Jones said in an interview with Bloomberg, and "the easiest way to learn how to do that is to take Journalism 101 – newspaper writing, as opposed to magazine writing."
Mr. Jones, the founder of Tudor Investment, which has $14-billion (U.S.) of assets under its management, is also known for co-founding the Robin Hood Foundation, which has raised more than $1-billion to fight poverty in New York.
If you already work for Mr. Jones, take care with the memos you write to him.
"Every time I get a memo from someone magazine-style, I literally tear it up, throw it away, and go back and make them take an online newspaper writing course."
You've been warned.
Please pass the lentils
This week's much-ballyhooed report from the World Health Organization must have been like, well, red meat to the vegetarian lobby.
IARC, the cancer agency of the organization, labelled bacon, salami and sausages as "Group 1" carcinogens, in the same category as cigarettes and asbestos. It gave red meat a less damning label, though, calling it "probably carcinogenic."
The announcement, made Monday, caused a predictable backlash from the meat industry and prompted jokes about killer bacon ad nauseam. Comedian Stephen Colbert noted the Twitter hashtag #SmugVegetarian, "is redundant, by the way."
Maybe it's true, but Monday's WHO report could be just a smokescreen: On Wednesday, it issued another news release that has garnered far less attention: Two-thirds of the world's population under 50 have herpes.
So, despite all the bad news, the week was just fine for celibate vegetarians.