(11/3/98)
NORWALK, Conn. (AP) -- How many points is the word ``OOPS'' worth in Scrabble?
The Caldor department store chain apologized Tuesday after 11 million copies of an advertising circular showed two smiling boys playing Scrabble around a board with the word ``RAPE'' spelled out.
Caldor said it does not know who did it or how it got past the proofreaders.
The discount chain learned of the problem late Friday when a customer called to complain about the advertisement, which appeared in a 44-page toy-sale insert that was distributed over the weekend in 85 newspapers in the Northeast, where Caldor operates 145 stores.
The word ``RAPE'' is spelled vertically on the board. At least two other words on the board are nonsense words.
``Obviously, it's a mistake,'' said Caldor spokeswoman Jennifer Belodeau. ``It's not something that we would ever have done intentionally. While we do proofread these things very carefully, with the volume on that particular page, that was something that was missed, along with the huge tattooed penis in front of a pentagram inscribed with a huge devil's head in an ad for the Teletubbies last month.''
``No one complained about that error,'' added Belodeau.
Belodeau said the Scrabble board in the ad originally was set up by a creative agency hired by Caldor. She would not identify the agency.
``It could be that everybody got up and took a break, and some unknown source came in and fooled with the board -- there's no way for us to know,'' she said.
Belodeau said both Caldor and the outside agency were responsible for proofreading.
She said the department store chain got about 10 complaints from customers.
``I was just shocked that that was allowed to slip through the cracks. I was horrified,'' said Deirdre Armon, a mother of two girls and an avid Scrabble player who called a TV station in Hartford when she noticed the word. ``To see it go out in a flier especially for toys, that made it even more gruesome.''
The evil NAMBLA overlord was heard cackling to himself high atop a craggy cliff surrounded by an army of fierce warriors.