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Bumfketeer	Post subject: The Killer Choirboys Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2002 10:38 am
Joined: Fri Nov 15, 2002 1:01 am Posts: 3557 Location: Cusp of retirement, grave or both	Perhaps JJMoney is right. Maybe I do need a vacation. The other night, I changed this construction for about the 40,000th time:<p>"A quartet of gunmen held up the Bumfville Bodega early Saturday...."<p>Why use "four" when you can use a longer, more colorful descriptor like "a quartet of" that leads "The Reader" to picture a bunch of guys with striped coats, soup-strainer mustaches armed with shaving mugs ripping a place off while singing "Goodbye, My Coney Island Baby?"<p>New World does list "a group of four people" as the first definition. But, for another example, when I read of a "trio" doing something, I can't get past thinking of the Mills Brothers or the Kingston Trio.<p>This is, like my obsession with "dumped" snow, a silly and unwinnable fight. Just because New World says something is OK doesn't mean go ahead and do it. After all, "bullshit" is in New World, and I have yet to see it in a headline.<p>Now how about that vacation?
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Phillip Blanchard	Post subject: Re: The Killer Choirboys Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2002 11:01 am
Joined: Sun Apr 07, 2002 1:01 am Posts: 8342 Location: Bethesda, Md.	Getting rid of duos, trios, quartets and quintents is just one of those things we have to do as a matter of routine. We won't save the world by doing so but we'll make it just a little more pleasant for "readers." <p>God. That reads like a Poynter essay. Sorry.
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Bumfketeer	Post subject: Re: The Killer Choirboys Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2002 11:31 am
Joined: Fri Nov 15, 2002 1:01 am Posts: 3557 Location: Cusp of retirement, grave or both	Poynter essay or not, I appreciate the backup on this. Now if I could only convince the rim editors that THEY should be doing it before it gets to slot...
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Guest	Post subject: Re: The Killer Choirboys Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2002 3:17 pm
	You fight the battle we all fight, every day. I get tired of changing the same things day after day, as well. Our young reporters are fond of cop-speak and government-speak, such as "Officers found a baggie of marijuana on the suspect" (no quantity given, let alone whether or not the bag used was the trademarked kind) and "Planning staff was directed to undergo a study on traffic patterns" (I trust you see the obvious problems there). They just ape what they see in reports and hear in hearings, and digest it uncritically, and pass it along to us. It drives me crazy, yes, but on the other hand, it makes me realize why my work is necessary, and it makes me feel good to know I do good work on behalf of our readers. <p>And, best of all, it gives me the high moral ground from which to bitch all shift long.
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Bumfketeer	Post subject: Re: The Killer Choirboys Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2002 4:55 pm
Joined: Fri Nov 15, 2002 1:01 am Posts: 3557 Location: Cusp of retirement, grave or both	Appreciate your support, Jim, but I have not been accused of being on high moral ground since I was 11.
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Finn DeSiecle	Post subject: Re: The Killer Choirboys Posted: Thu Dec 12, 2002 4:54 am
Joined: Mon Apr 29, 2002 12:01 am Posts: 76 Location: NJ	And don't forget advocatespeak. (I've lost count of how many times I've had to ask, "What are the 'at-risk children' at risk of?")
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[ 6 posts ]

What They're Saying

"This is like group therapy with prisoners in the Poynter Institute's dungeon." ... "You take a vocation that the simple-minded consider to be mere drudgery, and you exploit every bit of fascinating and humorous nuance imaginable." ... "Delicious" ... "Ask your professors? The only professors whose opinions matter are named Walsh, Blanchard and McIntyre." ... "What I come here for, I can find ONLY here. Phillip, you've built a great place." ... "Nothing gets us hotter than reading bitchy discussion threads from over-exhausted copy editors endlessly debating the merits of "theater" versus "theatre." ... "I love this site. It's better than the Kool-Aid acid tests." ..."I'm awed at the efficiency with which matters of opinion get hashed out in this forum." ... "Phil is the bomb!" ... "I'd wager that it's exactly your sort of hidebound thinking that contributes to the problems newspapers are having attracting readers." ... "I'm totally obsessed with this site. It's like porn--if you get off on Scrabble." ... "It reveals the backstage carping and vindictive emotions that roil the souls of those trapped at the copy desks." "When they say "testy," they certainly mean it. Whether it's reporters, editors, or the general public, no one is above their savage snark." ... "An apparent crack in the thin grey line." ..."Testy Copy Editors is a bitchboard for journalism's underclass." ... "My desire to read 'Testy Copy Editors' is only rivalled by my desire to pop "Constipated Call Girls" in the DVD player." ... "Phillip Blanchard is not just a testy copy editor, but a prophet scorned in his own time, and those of us who defend wordplay will be punished for it come the Judgment Day." ... "Phil Blanchard is as dashing in person as he is at the TCE board." ... "As far as writing and editing go: Read this board, read Bill Walsh, memorize the style book, read William Zinsser, and read the New York Times. That's a good start." ... "You should let go of your bitterness. You were not the oppressed talent you thought yourself to be. You were a miserable, brooding, silent, joyless grind, lucky to have a job at the Sun-Times, and we're lucky now that you've moved on to afflict others."

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