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, April 22, 2022

Copy desks rise, fall

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 As a tyro on the copy desk of The Cincinnati Enquirer  in 1980, I entered a scorned subculture.  At many U.S. newspapers the copy desk func...
1 comment:
Saturday, March 12, 2022

The Sun turns on H.L. Mencken

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 When on February 18 The Baltimore Sun published an apology for its history of racial prejudice , its editorial board took a swipe at H.L. M...
2 comments:
Monday, March 7, 2022

Two warm days, before the cold returns

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 Yesterday, on a walk with Kathleen and a neighbor, we passed a house with a yard full of crocuses to which bees were giving their attention...

To correct and serve

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 For many years at The Baltimore Sun  my hands were the ones through which corrections moved into the paper.  Errors of fact, either identif...
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Friday, March 4, 2022

Corpora Punishment: A Grammar Noir Tale

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Part 1: An editor walks into a bar The day was leaking sunlight all over Baltimore at three o'clock, but that was not doing me any good...
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Thursday, March 3, 2022

I have to say it again: English ain't algebra

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 Yesterday brought a Twitterspat in which I engaged, probably unwisely, with a woman who commented that logic governs English grammar and pu...
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Saturday, February 19, 2022

Don't be an eejit on March 17

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 Patrick Abdalla reminded me on Facebook this morning that March is nearly upon us, time to counter the ignorance that besmirches St. Patric...
1 comment:
Thursday, February 17, 2022

A brief announcement

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 I have contracted to provide editing services to The Baltimore Banner, the pending online local news site of The Venetoulis Institute for L...
1 comment:
Monday, February 7, 2022

Not rusting out

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 Since retiring in June I have been attending to household chores, cooking chicken for the cat, and reading books by the dozen. But the itch...
Monday, January 31, 2022

Call the pressroom

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 You've seen it. A reporter dashes in to a busy newsroom with a hot scoop, and a crusty old editor picks up a phone, usually a candlesti...
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