Forgive the diversion from our usual content, but this was too odd to pass up.

We consider ourselves to be fairly “hip” and “with it” people (NOTE: no actual quantity of hipness or with-it-osity is conferred with this sentence. Offer void in Utah), but we were surprised to learn of a butting-of-heads between a friend of ours and one of the folks at the Star-Telegram.

Fellow local blogger Robert McKee, whose DowntownFortWorth.com we also just noticed is back to life and looks pretty darned cool, runs a scavenger hunt on the site where contestants must match photos of each letter of the alphabet to the sign in Downtown Fort Worth that the letter appears on. As blogged about over on the Weekly, Robert had to delay announcing the winner of the most recent scavenger hunt due to his being in Scotland to put on a proper funeral ceremony for his father, who passed away a year prior.

Apparently, a delay in announcing the winner of a free contest on a web site so upset a participant, one Kevin McCambell, that he e-mail Robert several times to find out what the deal was. After a series of exchanges, Robert finally wrote back “I AM AT MY FATHER’S FREAKING FUNERAL,” and McCambell went on a crusade, complaining to the contest’s prize donors and to one Barry Shlachter, the Star-Telegram’s business writer.

Shlachter ran a story nit-picking Robert’s funeral story (choice quote: “scattering ashes in an Aloha shirt (he sent us a picture) may not be the same as a funeral (his father died in December), but why quibble?”). Being put on the defensive over what should be a harmless fun game and his providing closure for his father’s life understandably bothered Robert, and he demanded an apology from Shlachter.

He got a private apology from S-T editor Jim Witt, who said that the paper couldn’t give a public one. Unsatisfied, Robert decided to take things to the next step in getting an apology out of Shlachter, as also blogged about at the Weekly:

Well, an apology has not come (save for the two hilarious half-ass attempts to humor me by publishing the winner’s name in his column yesterday but ignoring the 900 pound gorilla) and therefore Wave II of Operation: Pepperspray has been launched. Observe: http://www.barryshlachter.com that’s right! Knowing he’s probably not savvy enough to have thought to secure it, I bought the domain of the mother-fucker’s name. And now, while he can print his stupid editorializing of peoples’ burial services, sit back with his tenure, and dismiss the whiny ‘letters-to-the-editor’ assuming people will just ‘move on,’ forever emblazoned on the internet, his name will be associated with his epic journalistic fail. At least until he apologizes in his column. Fucked with the wrong guy.

We wish Robert luck in getting an apology out of Mr. Shlachter. We can sympathize with him over the whole incident, at least to some extent – we know how the degree to which people (such as Mr. McCambell) can get very emotional, demanding, and downright rude over what is essentially a free, no-obligation-to-read-in-any-way web site can truly be bizarre.