Ground Black Pepper

J sent me this link from the AP news:

An australian publisher is reprinting 7,000 cookbooks over a recipe for pasta with "salt and freshly ground black people."

Penguin Group Australia's head of publishing, Bob Sessions, acknowledged the proofreader for the Pasta bible should have picked up the error, but called it nothing more than a "silly mistake."

 "We're mortified that this has become an issue of any kind and why anyone would be offended, we don't know," he told the Sydney Morning Herald for a story printed Saturday.

It's interesting how he's not 'mortified' by the mistake, but rather by the fact that people take offense to it.  I've always thought Americans were way too sensitive when it comes to racial issues and often erred on the side of political correctness; but I have to say that he was rather 'mortifyingly' dismissive.  Makes you wonder if there are no black people in Australia, just them great whites and kangaroos.