In light of the recent late night shakeup at NBC, we sure hope Jay Leno’s mailing address stays the same.

Leno is bound to receive some mail from Natchez soon, mail directed to his famous “Headlines” segment, and we wouldn’t want it to get lost.

You didn’t miss it, did you?

Last week, The Democrat published a classified ad about the “We CAN do it!” community-wide food drive we are sponsoring.

The ad said the basics: “Help fight hunger in the Miss-Lou! Canned goods or other non-perishable food items may be brought by The Natchez Democrat or other participating businesses.”

But it was toward the end that we made our Leno-worthy goof.

“Help area food banks fill their panties this winter with your donations.”

Did you catch it this time?

We printed the word “panties” instead of “pantries.”

Yes, it’s embarrassing; yes, we regret the error, but, we have to admit, it’s pretty funny.

We know some of you out there got a good laugh. And thankfully, after laughing, one of you nicely told us about the typo.

We’ve since corrected the ad, but we are hopeful our mistake may draw extra attention to a good cause, if nothing else.

One of our employees even suggested that we hang an extra-large pair of the old-fashioned women’s bloomers on the front door and encourage you all to drop off your canned goods there.

Mistakes are a part of life. For a business that prints thousands upon thousands of words each day, distributing 10,000 copies in print and putting it all online, mistakes are, unfortunately, a part of our job.

Mistake-free newspapers don’t exist.

Many of our mistakes can bring consequences more severe than a hearty laugh from readers too. We can hurt grieving families or cause confusion over who is accused of a crime.

And though you may get frustrated and angry at our typos or grammatical errors, trust me when I say no one gets as upset about our errors as we do.

If you see something that needs to be corrected, tell us. (Telling us nicely is always preferred.) Often we won’t know unless someone tells us.

From Leno’s point of view, an imperfect newspaper is a good thing.

Newspapers across the country have given him:

“Troutt named to salmon board”

“Miracle cure kills fifth patient”

“Poverty meeting attracts poor turnout”

“Gas company behind bean supper”

And now, maybe, Leno will share our goof with the nation.

National embarrassment isn’t something I look forward to, I must say, but we hope the error at least got you talking.

If you haven’t contributed cans to the food drive yet, we hope you will soon.

Drop off your cans at our office, B&K Bank, Concordia Bank, Stine Lumber, Natchez Regional Medical Center, West or Frazier primary schools, Cathedral, Co-Lin, Trace City Kiwanis, Delta Sigma Theta, First Presbyterian Church or Immanuel Baptist Church.

With your help, we can learn just how many cans it takes to fill the local food banks’ panties!

Julie Cooper is the managing editor of The Natchez Democrat. She can be reached at 601-445-3551 or julie.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com.