Testy Copy Editors
http://www.testycopyeditors.org/phpBB3/

Cat zapping
http://www.testycopyeditors.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=13754
Page 1 of 1

Author:  J Kaufman [ Wed Dec 21, 2011 1:09 pm ]
Post subject:  Cat zapping

From a Times situationer on the cat at the Algonquin Hotel, which apparently is using electric shocks to limit the cat's wanderings and thus the hotel's city Health Department liability:

Quote:
The electric fence was installed in late summer after someone called 311. A dog lover? A dog? The health department will not say.

But it took action, sending a letter to the Algonquin that said someone had alleged that “a possible violation of Article 81 of the New York City Health Code or Subpart 14-1 of the New York State Sanitary Code, applicable to food service establishments may have occurred or is occurring at the abovementioned facility.”

E.B. White, who knew his way around the Algonquin, probably would have complained about the lack of a comma after the word “establishments.” Who knows what he would have said about the need for a hyphen in “abovementioned,” but surely the word “facility” would not have gone unnoticed? “The Elements of Style,” which Mr. White wrote with William Strunk Jr., contains this entry: “Why must jails, hospitals and schools suddenly become ‘facilities’?” What about hotels?


White didn't do his version of the book "with" Strunk, who was dead, any more than Gowers or Burchfield worked "with" Fowler.

Page 1 of 1 All times are UTC - 5 hours
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group
http://www.phpbb.com/