Back in the days before email, most user comments arrived in the form of a note tied around a rock thrown through our front window. Needless to say, that did create some problems, especially with our HMO, Concert Permanente, which eventually refused to cover the cost of additional stitches for our receptionist.

Your email is important to us. We may not be able to acknowledge each and every message, but we can assure you that every message sent to Pollstar.com is read, evaluated and acted upon.

For example, we recently received an email from Larry in Akron, Ohio. Larry said he enjoyed looking at the new tour information for Monster Magnet and Tracy Lawrence, but while he was browsing the schedule for 311, he noticed that we had spelled Missoula incorrectly, and quickly dashed off an email, addressed to “the idiots who can’t spell major Montana cities,” telling us as much.

We were on the case as soon as the sales department rerouted the email to our desk. We quickly made the correction, and double checked all other schedules, including the ones for Widespread Panic and Ian Moore, for the same error. But that was only half the job. It’s one thing to correct an error, it’s another to find and eliminate the cause for the error.

Our data integrity chief, Baron Von Richtoven, quickly traced the mistake to one of our data entry operators, Irving, our newest employee at Pollstar.com. After explaining the difference between Missoula and Mazola, as well as reviewing the company rules about employees cleaning their guns while entering data for Anne McCue, Warren Zevon and Peter Rowan, the Baron believed the mistake was rectified. But the Baron’s job was far from completed. An appropriate disciplinary action had to be decided upon.

Though we’ve seen it time and time again, we’re still amazed at what twenty pounds of melted butter, poured on an employee who’s staked out next to an ant hill in the vacant lot next door, can accomplish. Not to mention the impression it leaves on that person’s coworkers. Irving’s back at his desk now, correctly spelling the cities on schedules for acts like J-Church and Unified Theory. However, there is one thing that bothers us.

We think Irving liked it.