EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK:Letter-writer ‘sorry’ and ‘embarrassed’

George L. Dodgson is at it again. The Coastline Pilot has received another letter with the same name, address and phone number as a letter that has been debunked as a fake.

This letter’s handwritten signature is different from that of the first letter, so we don’t know if this is the same “George L. Dodgson” who wrote a letter that created a real stir and caused us to scurry about conducting an all-out investigation of who wrote the letter and where it came from.

This letter offers an apology to the community and an explanation of how the letter came to be. The letter-writer says he/she is “too embarrassed” to reveal his/her identity, and asks that the apology be published under the “Dodgson” pseudonym.

We can’t publish an anonymous or pseudonymous letter, so we won’t publish the letter in full.

But in hopes of allowing this person to try to make amends, here are some excerpts from the new letter:

“Three weeks ago, I wrote a letter in the Coastline Pilot using the name ‘George L. Dodgson.’ I goofed when I did that. I was trying to be clever and meant to pick ‘Charles L. Dodgson,’ which was Lewis Carroll’s pen name. I figured that most people would Google the author, and the ‘Through the Looking Glass’ link would be a clue to the tongue-in-cheek nature of the piece. I don’t know where the ‘George’ came from but that mistake helped ruin the entire effect.

“The letter was intended to be a satire — ‘a literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn’ — to get people to think critically about what they read. It was a clumsy, heavy-handed effort, and when I read it in the Coastline Pilot, I thought, ‘She’s a real idiot.’

“I am sorry for the mistakes and that the letter missed the right notes of lampoon and satire. I apologize. I’ve heard some pretty amazing theories — that someone from Village Laguna wrote it. I have heard people say it was written by someone who did it to make Village Laguna look bad. It’s even been said that someone sympathetic to Village Laguna wrote it so people would think someone opposed to Village Laguna wrote it so people would be sympathetic to Village Laguna!

“I have also heard the letter attributed to people in Village Laguna and elsewhere who have been hurt by the suspicions. I grieve that the letter hurt people. The intent was purely satirical. An over-the-top parody of the wild things people say during the ‘silly season’ before elections. If the piece had been recognized as such, it might have worked. It didn’t, so obviously I misjudged my own writing skills.

“Again, I’m sorry. If you’re reading this in the Coastline Pilot, I thank them for publishing this letter to try and set things straight, for I am still too ashamed to use my real name.”