My favorite copy editor moment: when I was writing about the central joke in Guys and Dolls I said something like "the men have all the power, but the women always win in the end." The copy editor, who was a woman, as it turned out, wrote in the margin, "that's because the women have all the brains. Even Adelaide." I put it in the next draft, she said she didn't mean for me to use it, she was just trying to amuse me. But what a good catch.
That’s delightful! (Also, it’s always fun for a copy editor to find out that something they’ve said has made it into a book’s final text, just as it’s fun for a writer to scoop up a copy editor’s comment and make good use of it!)
I don't know if you broke the footnote record, but it was a good shot at it. I may have commented on this once before: if you're in a browser and instead of hovering you click on the footnote number, you are brought to the footnote itself. If you then click on the footnote number there, you are brought back to the footnote reference in the text. I find this useful because for long footnotes, my mouse seems to drift off station and then I have to re-hover, maybe twice or more.
And thanks for "manicule". I always enjoy new words like that.
Alas, emojipedia does not recognize "manicule", and 👉 is called Backhand Index Pointing Right. There's no Forehand Index Pointing Right to match your favorite rubber stamp.
I just learned, seconds ago, that if you want a Jewish star emoji and you type jew in the search bar (at least on my phone) you get nothing; you have to go to jewi before ✡️ and 🕎 and 🕍 materialize.
Eminently sensible and sensitive, and sensationally well written as usual.
I am trying to imagine New Yorker editors writing things like “reëmphasize” in personal correspondence, and while, it seems unlikely, I can’t rule it out.
As a child, I proudly penned "manicules" across the cardboard box in which my mom kept her manicure tools. And now you've taught me it's a word. Thanks!
“Compulsed”? … I am convulsed, that a word is coined that doesn’t repulse(d).
Charm me … (gently) harm me … but for goodness sake, don’t you dare schoolmarm me!
My favorite copy editor moment: when I was writing about the central joke in Guys and Dolls I said something like "the men have all the power, but the women always win in the end." The copy editor, who was a woman, as it turned out, wrote in the margin, "that's because the women have all the brains. Even Adelaide." I put it in the next draft, she said she didn't mean for me to use it, she was just trying to amuse me. But what a good catch.
That’s delightful! (Also, it’s always fun for a copy editor to find out that something they’ve said has made it into a book’s final text, just as it’s fun for a writer to scoop up a copy editor’s comment and make good use of it!)
I can't wait for:
• how to get an author to do what you want (and make them think they thought of it)
Pencil sharpened.
Schoolmarm will now be replacing my overly used term : Scoldy Face. Thank you.
I don't know if you broke the footnote record, but it was a good shot at it. I may have commented on this once before: if you're in a browser and instead of hovering you click on the footnote number, you are brought to the footnote itself. If you then click on the footnote number there, you are brought back to the footnote reference in the text. I find this useful because for long footnotes, my mouse seems to drift off station and then I have to re-hover, maybe twice or more.
And thanks for "manicule". I always enjoy new words like that.
And I look forward to part 3 also.
Alas, emojipedia does not recognize "manicule", and 👉 is called Backhand Index Pointing Right. There's no Forehand Index Pointing Right to match your favorite rubber stamp.
I just learned, seconds ago, that if you want a Jewish star emoji and you type jew in the search bar (at least on my phone) you get nothing; you have to go to jewi before ✡️ and 🕎 and 🕍 materialize.
🤷🏻♂️
Jewi indeed. Though, in my family, we’ve always spelled it “jewy”
Ah, rubber stamps.
Eminently sensible and sensitive, and sensationally well written as usual.
I am trying to imagine New Yorker editors writing things like “reëmphasize” in personal correspondence, and while, it seems unlikely, I can’t rule it out.
I suspect that out of fear that their private correspondence will be posthumously exposed they do all sorts of weird-ass things.
And thank you, Steven!
As a child, I proudly penned "manicules" across the cardboard box in which my mom kept her manicure tools. And now you've taught me it's a word. Thanks!