All newspapers make mistakes. I could tell you some first-rate horror stories based on personal experience.

Occasionally, though, a mistake turns out to be a good thing. Or at least have a good result.

That's what happened with Tom Phelps.

Phelps is the conductor of the Meridian Symphony Orchestra. Last summer, he received an unexpected call from the conductor of an orchestra in Mississippi.

"He asked if I was Maestro Phelps from the Meridian Symphony Orchestra. I said I was, and he said, 'Tom, you're quite well known in these parts.' "

Why would the conductor of an orchestra in Meridian be well known in Mississippi?

Phelps didn't have a clue.

What happened was that Mississippi also has a town named Meridian - and a Meridian Symphony Orchestra - and someone at that Meridian's newspaper had made the sort of mistake that keeps reporters up nights gnashing their teeth.

The mistake was in a story about a July 4 concert by the Mississippi version of the Meridian Symphony Orchestra.

"It was a pretty big deal," Phelps said. "It was outside in a park with an Air Force fly-by and everything. The newspaper was looking for a photo of the conductor, so they typed in the name of the orchestra and up came our Web site."

This should have invoked a basic rule of reporting in the Internet age: don't use anything from a Web site without making sure it's accurate. Unfortunately, that doesn't always happen. People are tired, they're rushing to make deadlines, they get sidetracked; somehow something goes wrong that every so often leads to a mistake of almost suicidal proportions.

So it was that the Meridian Star prominently featured Phelps the Idahoan - with his photo, no less - as the director of Meridian, Mississippi's holiday concert.

No one was more surprised than Claire Fox Hillard, who actually was the concert's director and looks nothing like Phelps.

"Apparently, there were a lot of jokes about how gray he'd gotten," Phelps said.

It was Fox who called Phelps with the stunning news that he would be directing an orchestra he didn't know existed. The two had a good laugh over the Star's story - which was about to acquire a new dimension.

"Instead of getting angry and cranky about the error, people in Meridian turned it into something fun," Phelps said. "I think that says a lot about their community, their orchestra and the people who run it."

Making the most of the fun factor, the orchestra invited Phelps to direct its season-opening concert in September. (The local paper had already said he'd be there, so why not?)

The offer was one Phelps couldn't refuse.

"They paid the travel expenses for me and my wife and showed us what Southern hospitality is all about," he said. "Everyone was kind and gracious and excited to meet us. I'll never forget a woman who said they may not have much, but one thing they're good at is treating you like family. And that's just what they did."

Family and then some. Phelps was interviewed by four radio stations, the local television stations and of course the Meridian Star, which had started the whole thing.

"They put the story on the front page, and this time they were very conscientious about getting it right."

The woman who spoke of not having much may have been unduly modest.

"The town was completely destroyed in the Civil War," Phelps said, "but you can tell there was great wealth there. They have an opera house that was built in the 1890s and was going to be demolished, but instead they raised $25 million to restore it. It's a glorious opera house. Absolutely stunning."

To put that into perspective, that's $25 million to restore an opera house in a town with 20,000 fewer people than our Meridian.

Phelps directed Meridian's orchestra there in works by Antonin Dvorak, Samuel Barber and Carl Maria von Weber. Its musicians, he said, were as impressive as its opera house.

Not to be outdone, our Meridian Symphony Orchestra has invited Fox to direct its seasoning opening concert next fall. And because of an accidental relationship that began with a mistake in a newspaper, the two towns have officially become sister cities.

Phelps, for one, is glad the mistake happened.

"If it hadn't, I never would have had a reason to go to Meridian, Miss.," he said. "Now I'd go back in a minute."

And somewhere in Meridian (Miss.), a reporter is sleeping nights again.

Tim Woodward: 377-6409