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, September 25, 2009

Are you a closet Socialist?

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Amid all the cries of “Socialism!” as the Congress has grappled with the problems of reshaping the nation’s health care system, I thought th...
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Today's word: egregious

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Egregious (adj.) From the Latin egregius (surpassing, illustrious). Formerly excellent, outstanding, or distinguished. Now used almost exc...
5 comments:
Thursday, September 24, 2009

The downward spiral

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Yesterday the Lexington Herald-Leader laid off Brian Throckmorton, who oversaw the copy desk. Mr. Throckmorton, an amiable colleague, is an ...
7 comments:

Punctuation without fear

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Today is National Punctuation Day , one of those gimmicky holidays on which one can be jocular or sober or both. Last year I posted a senten...
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Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Take off your hat, sir

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I was on the stand, testifying* in Baltimore County Circuit Court, when a man in a dark suit and a hat came into the courtroom and sat down....
28 comments:
Sunday, September 20, 2009

Papers, please

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In a jocular post the other day, I connected — and one reader cried “non sequitur”— high school students’ ignorance of basic information abo...
23 comments:
Saturday, September 19, 2009

Saturday morning

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Saturday turns out to be a day to catch up. Item: James Wolcott makes a graceful tribute to Samuel Johnson on his Vanity Fair blog, brin...
1 comment:
Friday, September 18, 2009

A copy editor's job description

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My son, J.P., recounts that one of his high school classmates said of me that “he was the most intimidating of my friends’ parents, because ...
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To the books, citizens!

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In the clamor over revamping the health care system, the term illegal immigrants is surfacing again. But before our good native-born fellow ...
9 comments:

A personal note at the Johnson tercentenary

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“Greek, sir, is like lace,” said Samuel Johnson; “every man gets as much of it as he can.” Fashions in men’s clothing and, sadly, learning h...
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