Thursday, April 30, 2009

Turning the page

Welcome to the continuation of You Don’t Say. My somewhat abrupt departure from The Baltimore Sun this week prompted an outpouring of accolades for the blog, and though it is rather vulgar to praise oneself, I would like to repeat a few of them to give you the flavor.

Dan: Please keep us up to date on the future blog... language nerds need a home.

Brian Cubbison:
Your good humor, defense of high-quality editing and graceful farewell have been inspiring.

Linz: Your blog has been the only reading material my boyfriend and I shared in two years.

Mark: I would never have anticipated that the ramblings of a copy editor might become one of the blogs I looked forward to the most during my lunchtime browsing at my desk.

Bob:
Thanks John for teaching me something new with each of your posts. You're the best kind of teacher: someone who is extremely competent, loves what they do, and who has that rare ability to truly inspire others with their knowledge.

Robert Knilands: Good riddance, John. As I've said for a couple of years, you weren't much more than a caricature.*

Well, enough of panegyric. The second day of unemployment has been busy — administering a final examination to my class at Loyola, making a start on responding to the scores of people who have sent kind words, preparing to celebrate my son’s graduation from St. John’s College in Annapolis in two weeks, and doing preliminary spadework on this blog. I am particularly indebted to my friend and fellow ex-president, Pam Robinson, for giving me the necessary push.

I’m back, and I do not intend to go away.




*I am particularly touched by this one, which is the last comment from Mr. Knilands that you will see at this location.

44 comments:

  1. Glad to see you are back. The blog would have been badly missed.

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  2. Excellent! Welcome to Blogger.

    (And I would have expected nothing else from Mr. K [no matter whom he was addressing].)

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  3. I've linked your new blog at my blog. Glad you're continuing.

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  4. Oh, if Pam hadn't pushed you, about 200 others would have. Glad to see you back so soon.

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  5. I'm bookmarking this page now.

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  6. We will continue to hound you over here.

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  7. Wonderful! Welcome back, John. You've always been a mentor to me, though we've never met. You're the sort of dignified, professional, thoughtful journalist I aspire to be.

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  8. This is the way I felt when my dog ran away for a day, but then I found him.

    I'm so happy to see you back, Prof. McIntyre. Even though you've been gone only a day.

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  9. Fantastic to see you back so soon. Onward and upward!

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  10. Wonderful to have you back!!

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  11. Welcome back! You are my kindred spirit in grammar nerdiosity.

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  12. You're back!

    Welcome back.

    Now let's start the campaign for The Sun to give you a 301 Permanent Redirect from the old blog, so you can retain your Google juice...

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  13. Glad to see that you are back! Looking forward to following this next version of You Don't Say.

    Cheers!

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  14. You are now on my favourites list. So glad to have you here!

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  15. I could care less. (Which means I care!!)
    This is great news.

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  16. I could care less.

    Which means I care!!!!

    v. great news, congratulations.

    RlG

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  17. I hope The Sun gives John a permanent 301 redirect. That would be the sensible and decent thing to do.

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  18. Glad to see this (thanks to Charles Apple.) I've added you to the blogroll.

    - Jim McBee

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  19. Whew! Now where were we before that rather rude interruption courtesy of the Tribune Corp.? Overjoyed to see you back and looking forward to following your future writings. Welcome back John!

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  20. I'm glad to have found your continuation, and I look forward to the continuing conversation.

    Talley Sue Hohlfeld

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  21. I'm glad to see you're not going away. This blog has been a great tool ... among other things, I forward your list of holiday cliches to avoid to the entire newsroom every November.

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  22. Let me add my pleasure to that of your other loyal readers, and I will update my blogroll to include your new home. It's been a long couple of days without you, so I wrote a brief post of my own to celebrate your return:

    http://androcass.blogspot.com/2009/05/he-back.html

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  23. I recently discovered You Don't Say, and I value it and put it on my blog's blogroll. I didn't want it to disappear. That you got the ax raises more than a little anti-corporate rage.

    Great to see you are keeping on at another venue.

    Now, to change my blogroll to point to this site ...

    Nick

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  24. Great to see this blog up and running, John. I look forward to your continued posts.

    Also surprisingly amused to see the RK comment; he's nothing if not consistent.

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  25. Hooray! I can still get my daily fix!

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  26. I'm surprised the RK comment was even published, that was uncalled for and rude.

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  27. The Sun will shine considerably less brightly for your absence.

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  28. Knew it wouldn't take long. Hurrah for the Oxford comma!

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  29. Glad to see you're back!

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  30. Forgive me for bringing his name up again, but just who is Robert Knilands and who lit the fuse on his tampon? How could someone possibly have a bug up his arse about you? Did you steal his prom date back in 1966 or something?

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  31. For sarahspade:

    http://tinyurl.com/c5hc54

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  32. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  33. Much as I agree with Ms. Spade's findings about the gentleman in question, I repented of authorizing the comment because I want to uphold my own standard of civility.

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  34. John: So glad you're back and so soon. Many of us were thinking about you in Minneapolis.

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  35. Patricia the TerseMay 5, 2009 at 2:16 AM

    Who, or What, is a Robert Knilands when he's at home?

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  36. Patricia the TerseMay 5, 2009 at 2:37 AM

    After reading some of Mr Recouso's writings, I suspect that his views - and his arguments- are more than a match for any McGovern liberal. Thank you for pointing us in his direction. He isn't however, a patch on Consul McIntyre on grammar. Shaw was a great writer of plays: on music, however, his enormous ego, which brooked no criticism, colored his writings, and he was way off base about most things musical. We all have our strengths, except possibly the viscious Mr Knilands.

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  37. John McIntyre. I was disheartened to read the news of your abrupt departure from The Baltimore Sun. You don't remember me... but I remember you clearly from a short seminar you taught nearly 10 years ago when I was part of the METPRO copy editing program. After that class, I began seeing copy editing as an art form, something alive and invigorating. I still have my copy of "That Crepuscular Light." Add yet another inspired young(ish) journalist to your list!

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