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.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Weekend miscellany

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Item: Tomorrow is the two-hundredth anniversary of the death of Joseph Haydn, and as I crouch over the computer in the basement, I’m listen...
6 comments:
Friday, May 29, 2009

Know your U.S. Presidents

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A correction today from the Times Observer of Warren, Pa.: An errant classified "personal" ad which appeared in Thursday's Ti...
6 comments:

The grit in the oyster

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I can’t help myself; I’ve been a copy editor for too long. When I read for amusement, I notice things that go awry, and they stick in my min...
6 comments:

'White' is also an ethnicity

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The nomination to the Supreme Court of Judge Sonia Sotomayor has generated a quantity of chatter about race, little of it edifying. Tom Tanc...
2 comments:
Thursday, May 28, 2009

Things not to give a fig for

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Not to care a fig , according to Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable , refers to the fruit as “something of little or no value.” Or perh...
12 comments:
Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Lure a reader, get a book

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A limited-time offer for fans of You Don’t Say: Introduce five friends to this blog, and I will send you a free book. The catches: I want t...
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Do you know where Puerto Rico is?

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Blame the McKinley administration. Coming to imperialism just as it was passing its high-water mark, the United States, which had previously...
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Apologies to the Klingons

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Some time back, I made a snarky remark about Star Trek fans who had undertaken to translate the Bible into Klingon. Now, thanks to a new boo...
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Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Tapped out

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In multiple articles you will see or will have seen that Judge Sonia Sotomayor has been tapped for the Supreme Court by President Obama. As...
3 comments:

It's summer, already

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As regularly as the swallows return to Capistrano or the buzzards to Hinckley, journalists reach for seasonal cliches. If you read a newspap...
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