Sorry My Kids Wouldn't Shut Up: Apologies of the Week

This week, a public apology from a non-public person generated lots of buzz:

• Shhh: "My son later told me, much to my humiliation and embarrassment, that my girls were rude and obnoxious during the movie. ... I apologize profusely for their disrespect ."—Kyesha Smith Wood, in a Facebook post to a moviegoer after her girls acted up at the movies. The post, as they say, went viral, and the offended moviegoer saw it and praised Wood. But one blogger wonders whether the apology might be a case of "oversharenting."

• Anger management: "I want to extend an apology to the driver of that vehicle and the two passengers in that vehicle for the behavior of that officer."—NYPD Chief Bill Bratton, after one of his officers unleashed a torrent of abuse worthy of Christian Bale on an Uber driver that was captured on video.
• Customer service: "We are deeply sorry for the experience that you had in one of our shops. Please know that this is not reflective of our brand standards or how we do business." —Auto body shop chain Maaco, after one of its employees left an angry voice mail telling a customer's husband to "get her in check" and to "deal with it before I deal with it." The woman had posted a bad review of service at a shop in Maryland.
• Familiar face: "Mr. Mayor, members of council, I'm deeply ashamed of what I said and I recognize that they bring discredit to both myself and council as a whole. I wish to offer my heartfelt apology for my words and actions.”—Rob Ford, Toronto's oh-so-colorful former mayor and current council member, for a string of racist slurs he made as mayor. Council accepted the mea culpa instead of ordering Ford, who is battling cancer, to attend an anti-racism course.
• Satire gone wrong: "We deeply apologize to anyone who felt hurt, marginalized or that their experiences were trivialized by these pieces."—Editors of the Cavalier Daily at the University of Virginia after two April Fools' stories flopped. The headlines “Zeta Psi hosts ‘Rosa Parks’ party” and “ABC agents tackle Native American student outside Bodo’s Bagels" provide a sense of the dicey topics, but more details here.

(More apology stories.)