Chicago Tribune’s Homepage Was A Cat For 16 Minutes Today

Just in case you missed it, the Chicago Tribune’s homepage was a cat-centric test page for at least 16 minutes today.

Though the Tribune hasn’t given any official word on the flub yet, their homepage editor apparently made the mistake of publishing a test headline page and letting it run for 16 minutes before returning to your regularly scheduled programming.

The entire page wasn’t compromised. Other headlines like the latest on Bradley Manning’s trial and the death of former U.S. Senator Harry Byrd were present, but the homepage’s feature was a story called “Headline test here” filled with a surreal, if not Pulitzer-winning “test, test, test, test, test, test, test… ”

“… test, test, test, test, test, test, test, test… ”

“… test, test, test, test, test,” forget it, you get the picture.

Above it all, a featured photo of an adorable cat, the Internet’s favorite pet.

Gizmodo’s Brian Barrett picked up the story, and described the Tribune homepage cat as being “like the internet swallowed a Gertrude Stein poem and pooped this out 16 minutes later.”

Hilariously, a possible Tribune employee named “Scott” confronted Barrett in the comments:

“Thank you, Brian, for using the words wonderful and glorious to describe our glitch. Even dog lovers weren’t upset. We do apologize, and we’re working to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Barrett shot back with endless questions:

“Scott! You work at the Trib? Do you mind sharing any details about what went down, when you finally caught it, etc.? Also is that a real person’s cat or a stock photo cat? So many questions!”

Unfortunately, it left off there (for now). We’ll let you know once the Tribune homepage cat flub yields an official explanation.