Measure twice, cut once …

Let’s be honest. We’ve all done it.

You’re late for the party, and you’ve forgotten to get a bottle of wine for your host.

So, you dash down to the cellar and, after a quick scout around, grab something that’s not completely toxic.

Mercifully, the Henschke Hill of Grace is under lock and key – but you’re in a hurry and hope you haven’t grabbed a bottle of Blue Nun in your haste.

With any luck, your host will be busy welcoming guests and you’ll be able to furtively hide your bottle of battery acid behind all the others on the table.

But you wouldn’t think the pros would slip up as badly as this. Would they?

Enter stage right, the new assistant general manager at the Hawksmoor restaurant in Manchester.

Two diners had just ordered a rather splendid £260 bottle of claret.

Springing into action, she dashed down to the cellar and grabbed what she thought was the right bottle.

It wasn’t.

What she’d retrieved was a bottle of Chateau Le Pen Pomerol 2001 that came with a deliciously cool £4500 price tag.

Without paying much attention, the diners quickly okayed the bottle which was rapidly slurped before the restaurant spotted the error.

In other words, two opportunities to check slipped by before more than four grand’s worth of hedonistic luxury disappeared down two very welcome gullets.

The moral in the story?

Measure twice and cut once, as the wise carpet fitter would say.

The same thing applies to printing proofs.

It’s well-known that over 90% of proofing errors are discovered AFTER printing.

If you’d like some hints and tips on properly checking proofs, please let me know.

Until next week.

Alec