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.

Monday, February 22, 2010

The sweetest sound

›
Last week the lighthearted lexicographer Grant Barrett published an essay in The New York Times on the claim, attributed to various writers...
8 comments:
Saturday, February 20, 2010

No moaning over 'only'

›
An inquiry from a reader about the placement of only in the most recent installment of “Pulp Diction” : Lovin' the serial. How do you ...
9 comments:
Thursday, February 18, 2010

Pulp Diction 2: The last copy editor

›
(Previously: 15 items or trouble ) At the old Sun building on Calvert Street the front door yielded with a rusty creak. Dust lay thick o...
6 comments:
Tuesday, February 16, 2010

The Utah House is in session; get popcorn

›
It is a shame and a loss to the country that newspapers’ cost-cutting has sometimes included their statehouse bureau staffs, for it is in...
22 comments:
Monday, February 15, 2010

Images from the Nopocalypse

›
Amid the storm, a family dinner last Wednesday evening to celebrate my fifty-ninth birthday. (I am wearing my Baltimore Sun Blizzard of'...
7 comments:

Happy birthday, Mr. President

›
Today is a federal holiday, Washington’s Birthday. You may know it as President’s Day, Presidents Day, or Presidents’ Day, but that is a pop...
1 comment:
Sunday, February 14, 2010

Off with their heads

›
A reader was momentarily puzzled by a Baltimore Sun headline — Structure collapses dot city, region — until he realized that collapses ...
6 comments:
Saturday, February 13, 2010

Snow day 9

›
Yeah, I said earlier today I wasn’t going to do another of these. Sue me. A neighbor says that a city salt truck rolled down Plymouth Road...
4 comments:

Snowbound still, with a side of spleen

›
Get me out of here: I am discontinuing the Nopocalypse snow day journal, which has become tediously repetitive. Just say to yourself, “The ...
4 comments:
Friday, February 12, 2010

Snow day 8

›
Now we get the How come? What do you mean? questions. How come you say you’re still stranded at home? What do you mean, you can’t get off y...
5 comments:
‹
›
Home
View web version
Powered by Blogger.