You Don't Say

John McIntyre, whom James Wolcott called "the Dave Brubeck of the art and craft of copy editing," writes on language, editing, journalism, and random topics. Identifying his errors relieves him of the burden of omniscience. Write to jemcintyre@gmail.com, befriend at Facebook, or follow at Twitter: @johnemcintyre. His original "You Don't Say" blog at The Baltimore Sun ran from 2005 to 2021, and posts on it can sometimes be found at baltimoresun.com through Google searches.

Friday, July 3, 2026

A thought for the Fourth

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 Let us acknowledge things about our national anthem. "The Star-Spangled Banner" is mediocre verse set to the tune of an old drink...
5 comments:
Wednesday, June 17, 2026

People still read books, you say?

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 During the fair weather this week I have been reading The Iliad  in Emily Wilson's translation on the front porch.  My interest in Wils...
6 comments:
Monday, June 15, 2026

You're a copy editor? Uh ...

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  It took many conversations, but my wife, Kathleen Capcara, finally perfected a response.  "Kathleen, what does your husband do?"...
5 comments:
Saturday, June 6, 2026

What did the graduate do?

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A headline in The Guardian  says that the son of a man who was deported is now "graduating high school."  We've come a long wa...
Tuesday, June 2, 2026

Beyond our control

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 I had occasion to get in touch the with Comptroller of Maryland's office with an inquiry about a refund on our state income tax, and I ...
2 comments:
Monday, May 18, 2026

Greek to them

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 If you have not been on Twitter lately, and I know that many of you have left it in disgust, you will not have seen that the silly season i...
Wednesday, May 6, 2026

My call is not important to you

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 My doctor wants an MRI scan of my hip, and his office called and set up an appointment at a nearby location next week.  In due time I recei...
4 comments:
Friday, April 24, 2026

Letting down the side again

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 Ever unable to help myself, I responded to an online post in which someone was carping about the use of loan  as a verb. You may have been ...
2 comments:
Thursday, April 16, 2026

Upon further consideration ...

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 A few days ago an irate reader vented his spleen online over someone who used further  to mean at a greater distance.  For the civilians in...
13 comments:
Monday, April 13, 2026

Strike it out. Just strike it out.

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 If you make no other gesture this day toward clarity and economy in prose, deleting ongoing  will store up treasure for you in Heaven.  It ...
3 comments:
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