RETRACTED: Katrina: The New El Niño.

Remember when El Niño was being blamed for everything from species extinction to simple chronic halitosis?

Well, it seems Hurricane Katrina is the new El Niño.

Because here in Missouri (Missouri!), the Kat's being blamed for the Taum Sauk reservoir disaster.

Never mind the two were seperated by almost a month and more than 600 miles.

Blogmaster's note: I feel stupid. And contagious. I got home last night and realized maybe they were talking about Rita, not Katrina. Maybe I had misread the story.

Then I heard a radio news report that confirmed it was indeed Rita.

And then this morning, a nice anonymous commenter let me know the error has not gone unnoticed.

Unlike Dan Rather and CBS, I have no problem admitting when I make a mistake. And I don't blame it on pajama-clad bloggers.

Nor do I employ the Jayson Blair defense, which is "I was drunk." I was NOT drunk. Yet.

I was fully prepared to employ the Clinton defense, no not the "It depends on the meaning of 'Katrina'" one. Or the "I did not have hurricanal relations with that reservoir" one. I would have used the one that Hillary used to explain why missing records were found in their closet -- the "We are inept" defense. Hey, it worked for her.

But then, when I was able to log on this morning, I found that the original error was KAIT's, not mine. But instead of employing the OJ Simpson "It wasn't me" defense, I accept full responsibility for not verifying the news story from a second source.