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, December 4, 2009

You can't jolly humorless

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I have a guest post today, “The with-it need the without-it,” at Dining@Large , responding to a series of exchanges over a one-line joke ab...
3 comments:
Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Somebody loves copy editors

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At last, somebody understands us. Of course, it would be The Intern. The Intern got her manuscript back from the copy editor, and, well...
6 comments:

Dork, dork, geek

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The terms dweeb , dork , geek , and nerd tend to be flung about carelessly, with very little discrimination about shades of meaning. Happil...
14 comments:

Three volleys and a bugle call

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With an additional 30,000 U.S. troops heading for Afghanistan, reporters should school themselves to write more passages like this one from ...
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Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Surprising -- surprisingly weak, that is

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She started out so promisingly, too. Jill Lepore in the current New Yorker : “At present the United States has the unenviable distinction ...
7 comments:
Monday, November 30, 2009

Busy week

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You may have been traveling last week, or stunned by Thanksgiving food and drink, and were too distracted to follow this blog. But my hands ...
1 comment:
Sunday, November 29, 2009

RED ALERT! RED ALERT!

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A colleague in an unnamed state has just sent me an alarming bulletin: "FYI: AP is running on the wire Sunday the annual nonstory on ...
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Don't you ever talk about what's RIGHT with America?

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Before I undertake the heavy lifting myself, does anyone else want to address the character who made — anonymously — the captious comment sc...
13 comments:
Saturday, November 28, 2009

Not news

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Though no foe of innocent amusement — speculate as you will about the private life of Tiger Woods — it wearies me to see how much text in pr...
13 comments:

These are the rules

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In Good as Gold , Joseph Heller summarizes the basic rules of behavior: Don’t make personal remarks, never tell a hostess you enjoyed your...
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