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.

Tuesday, May 11, 2021

Family continuity represented in furniture

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 This swivel chair was in the general store my grandfather, John H. McIntyre, operated in Elizaville, Kentucky. He sat in it to keep his acc...
2 comments:
Sunday, April 25, 2021

Working from home is hardly working

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For the past year a desk, table, and chair in the basement have served as my remote newsroom of The Baltimore Sun . My wife, Kathleen Capcar...
1 comment:
Monday, September 14, 2020

Yokely-dokely

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In a fit of frustration I recently posted an injudicious statement, "I try to say that the people where I come from aren't all a bu...
7 comments:
Sunday, August 30, 2020

Embattled whiteness

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 I occasionally sample the wackadoodle political opinions of former classmates at Fleming County High School in Kentucky.  One of them, afte...
3 comments:
Monday, August 24, 2020

No more chalk dust on the suit

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Today I notified Sara Magee, chair of the Communication Department at Loyola University Maryland, that I am giving up the editing class I ha...
9 comments:
Friday, July 17, 2020

Maybe you could stop congratulating yourself on your grammar

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People who preen online about their command of English grammar often assert that they see a general cultural and educational decline, most f...
12 comments:
Tuesday, July 7, 2020

No apologies necessary

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Someone shared a white-people-whining post on Facebook that I thought to examine. I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE FOR BEING CAUCASIAN Not that anyo...
2 comments:
Thursday, June 18, 2020

The good apples and the barrel

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Six years ago I was the copy editor for "UNDUE FORCE," Mark Puente's account of how the city of Baltimore paid $5.7 million ov...
2 comments:
Friday, May 8, 2020

Up to here, I'm telling you, up to here

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I've been a working editor at newspapers for more than forty years, working every day to make sure that the copy passing through my hand...
4 comments:
Sunday, April 19, 2020

Thank you so much, Apprentice House Press

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As Bad Advice  approaches formal publication May 1, I want to show gratitude to Apprentice House Press, my publisher at Loyola University Ma...
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