• An opinion piece said the Teatro Massimo in Palermo was closed for a private performance of Don Giovanni as part of the Japanese billionaire Kaoru Nakajima’s birthday celebrations. In fact, Nakajima attended a public performance of the opera, and last Sunday booked the venue exclusively for a private event. The opera house told the Observer that this did not interfere with its own programming (Sicily, where billionaires get back to basics – by booking an entire city, 5 November, p47).
• A review of David Kynaston’s new book, A Northern Wind (Fab guys shine through the gloom, 29 October, New Review, p41), referred to the Cuban missile crisis as being in October 1963; it was 1962.
• A recipe (Let the baking begin with sweet potatoes and a fig cake, 29 October, Magazine, p24) omitted instructions for when to add the figs into the mixture; this should be done at the same time as adding both lots of hazelnuts.
