Complete lack of outrage over Estonian misprint

Take note – story published 7 years ago

Latvian society reacted with widespread indifference March 22 after an oversight by a leading Estonian newspaper consigned its southern neighbor to the waves of the Baltic Sea.

The Postimees daily published a map on which Latvia was notable by its absence, its place taken instead by a Latvia-sized-and-shaped extension of the Baltic coastline.

The cartographic anomaly was spotted by eagle-eyed Latvian readers who responded with humor rather than outrage, suggesting that the disappearance of the country might have been caused by the melting of all the Latvian ice cream for which Estonians are known to have an almost narcotic addiction.

Another conspiracy theory suggested that as Estonia likes to make great play of the spring floods in its Soomaa national park as a tourist attraction, Latvia had responded by flooding the entire country.

Postimees editor Aivar Pau very decently apologized on social media, even though no-one had actually asked for an apology, no diplomatic notes had been exchanged and the Latvian navy's gunships, manned by aquatic mer-men led by Kevin Costner, had not sailed from New Atlantis (formerly known as Riga) across the watery expanse of northern Vidzeme to threaten the bombardment of Valga, the south Estonian city that had suddenly become a port.

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However, the oversight may not have been entirely accidental as the graphic in question showed flights from Tallinn airport to 18 different destinations operated by Estonian airline Nordica.

Latvia's airBaltic operates flights to more than 60 destinations from Riga airport, which would require a considerably bigger map. 

However, it is good that cool heads have prevailed and the situation appears to have dehydrated.

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