Croatians look like Germans in the right light.

Being December, that means end-of-year lists. The Best of--, Worst of--, Greatest of--, Etc.of--. They're like lollipops. Tempting, unavoidable, and usually a letdown after the brief sugar high.

Regrettheerror.com likes to keep the media on their toes. (Hence the subtle website name.) But they have a slightly better Best of-- list than most. Specifically: Biggest Media Errors of 2010. And since these journalism errors occurred in the written word, well, why not point them out?

The biggest media errors of the year consist of a lengthy list of...uhhh...two events. But whatta two!

1.) In brief:

Cooks Source magazine stole a charming little article about apple pie's history with America...and never told the writer they stole it. When the writer, Monica Guadio, found out, she emailed the editor of Cooks Source. The editor, Judith Griggs, lit into Guadio, not only suggesting that random articles found online were public domain, but that Guadio's writing was so horrible and in need of editing that not only should she be happy with Cooks Source for publishing it--she should pay Cooks Source.

That, my friends, is what feisty old ladies like to call chutzpah.

2.) The biggest oops award for our fellow writing brethren goes to the good folks at The Independent newspaper. Why?

See that photo there? Of the Nazi war criminal who killed 430,000 Jews?

Yeah. That's not him in the photo.

It's a Croatian actor in a promo shot from a 2007 movie called The Living and the Dead--an actor who, I'm guessing, doesn't want people assuming he's a Nazi war criminal. Just a hunch.

Of course, the old saying is that any publicity is good publicity for an actor. I just don't know if you frame and mount this publicity on the wall of your home office.