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Nancy Friedman's avatar

If you or your readers would like to know much, much more about the pontiff’s slur, James Harbeck has written about it for Strong Language, the sweary blog about swearing: https://stronglang.wordpress.com/2024/05/29/pope-francis-said-a-rude-thing/

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Benjamin Dreyer's avatar

Thank you, Nancy! The next thing I need to teach myself here, if it's a thing one can do, is how to provide a link to a URL and then make it show up in your essay by saying something like "And you can look here," with the word "here" underscored and it leads to the thing in question, and you know what I'm trying to say, right?

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Nancy Friedman's avatar

Not difficult: find the 🔗 icon, highlight the words you want to link, insert URL.

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Nancy Friedman's avatar

Sorry, highlight first, then embed the link.

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Benjamin Dreyer's avatar

Oh, thank you, I'll play with this and figure it out.

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Catherine's avatar

I laughed so hard at “known to evoke the arrangement of a friendly social engagement shortly after the weekend, but not on Monday (though not as late as Wednesday”. We used to constantly use this expression in high school. I’m nostalgic and a bit wistful for those innocent days.

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Catherine's avatar

I’m always mildly shocked when I hear that word used so casually in British movies and shows.

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Benjamin Dreyer's avatar

Thank you for appreciating that; I really wanted to get it right—and elegantly! 😉

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Ray Banks's avatar

Can confirm it's both a threat and a term of endearment here in Scotland.

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Maggie Hill's avatar

Me too!

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Steven K. Homer's avatar

So now I'm trying to figure out how bad I think "f*****ry" is for me personally, because I have half a mind to open a gay bar called "Frociaggine."

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Benjamin Dreyer's avatar

People will clamor!

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Steven K. Homer's avatar

Hopefully the good clamoring, not the pitchfork-and-torch clamoring. Question is: do I go all in with a papal theme, or will that be dated by the end of next week?

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That Hag's avatar

- Only Murders is such a satisfying show. There's a Song Exploder podcast episode about the theme song (https://songexploder.net/only-murders-in-the-building), too, which you might enjoy if you're going hard into the fandom.

- What are your thoughts on e-book/ebook/eBook?

- "It really adds a bit of texture and Americana to the whole story. It wouldn’t be nearly as much fun if her name were simply Martha Ann." Yes. This x100000.

(- I have no idea how to get formatting [e.g., italics] into comments. I apologize.)

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Benjamin Dreyer's avatar

At RH we went relatively quickly from e-book to ebook. I think that eBook is a weird and rather nonsensical affectation, more appropriate for the name of a coffee bar than for, well, an ebook.

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That Hag's avatar

Yes. eBook is no good. I'm always (and I can't think of a better phrase) bummed out when eBook is part of an in-house style guide.

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Benjamin Dreyer's avatar

Did we do it for a little while at Random House? We might well have. If so, it seems that I woke up one day, looked at it, and thought: This is stupid.

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That Hag's avatar

I was told once that the reason for "eBook" being in the style guide was that people googling tended to search for "eBook" more than "e-book" (or, presumably, "ebook"). I didn't think capitalization mattered for that kind of thing (google searches), but it was fascinating (and horrifying) to realize that people's capitalization choices while casually searching online had affected editorial decisions. Or maybe I was lied to and someone in the copy department was just very, very into eBook.

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Benjamin Dreyer's avatar

I know about searchability issues, of course, but it strikes me, as well, extremely unlikely that eBook is going to get you better results than ebook. 🤷🏻‍♂️

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Lisa Kohn's avatar

I'm a dedicated Android nerd, but have to say eBook looks like it was created by someone who had drunk Jobs's (!) Kool-aid: iPhone, iPad, iChat, iTunes, eBook... But I don't know when this was an issue at RH, so maybe not.

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That Hag's avatar

So unlikely.

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JonCee71's avatar

The footnote on hyphen usage was . . . precious.

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Steve Kempson's avatar

Tuesdays are far and away my favourite time for arranging to look up old friends.

Thank you for another hugely enjoyable read, Benjamin.

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Benjamin Dreyer's avatar

Thank *you,* Steve.

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Mike Exinger's avatar

I always thought both Dave Berry and Garrison Keillor worked callbacks into their stories successfully. Lord knows I try to. It's a fun device (like those soft handcuffs the wife purchased last month).

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Timber Fox's avatar

It sounds like she's a real call you back next Tuesday. I didn't know frociaggine, only finocchio. But yeah words over actions and I would have laughed, too.

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Louis Kersten's avatar

Glad I finally gave up and looked up ther translation of “Dixi, gaudeo quod dixi, et scitote puellae quid loquor." It's time to concede my high school Latin has left the building.

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Caroline Smrstik's avatar

Supremely satisfying footnotes, as ever.

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Melissa Techman's avatar

I'm so American now that I would be somewhat offended to hear a lot of cunt-calling on the sidewalks...but only if I was paying attention.

PLEASE translate the Latin! I am faltering in my search skills....and I didn't go to private schools like the Catholic ones my husband attended. OK, that was just an observation, but here's the whine: I miss that incredible Latin teacher who had the classroom next door to me when I was a HS librarian! I was so sad when she left to go to a school which offered her and her 3 small children work-life balance.

AND whatever the exact question was in the post after this one, the answer is YES! More of anything you want to write about, thank you so much. As often as you're inclined! This is completely unrelated to my reading compulsion, as in there's a bunch of stuff I skim but don't savor. I am savoring what you write!

When I figure out how to use a VPN to see stuff on TV in foreign markets, I will be able to level up and ditch Netflix and be a paid fan of you and Fritinancy.

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Benjamin Dreyer's avatar

Oh, ha ha, that was just me using Google Translate to say "I said it, I'm glad I said it, and you girls know what I'm talking about." Or words to that effect. (IRL I speak not a word of Latin.)

And thank you for liking what I'm posting!

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