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Phillip Blanchard
 Post subject: Do the arithmetic
PostPosted: Tue Dec 02, 2003 8:40 am 
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Joined: Sun Apr 07, 2002 1:01 am
Posts: 8342
Location: Bethesda, Md.
"Colon cancer is a largely preventable disease -- we just have to get people through the door to get screened," said Perry J. Pickhardt, an associate professor of radiology at the University of Wisconsin Medical School in Madison, who tested the new approach. "This could help do that. It's an exciting time. We could save countless lives."<p>Colon cancer strikes about 105,500 Americans each year and kills more than 57,000, making it the second leading cancer killer, after lung cancer. (Washington Post)<p>***Countless? Looks pretty countable to me.***
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Oeditpus Rex
 Post subject: Re: Do the arithmetic
PostPosted: Tue Dec 02, 2003 4:06 pm 
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Location: N 36° 57' 9", W 121° 24' 2"
I had a kid sportswriter who was in the habit of writing "countless," particularly to describe the "number" of turnovers in a sloppy basketball game. I told him, "Just because you didn't count them, that doesn't make them 'countless'." <p>Come to think of it, I had to teach this kid that change of possession on a defensive rebound isn't a turnover.
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Phillip Blanchard
 Post subject: Re: Do the arithmetic
PostPosted: Wed Dec 03, 2003 11:53 am 
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Posts: 8342
Location: Bethesda, Md.
Image<p>***That would be the thing marked "P."***
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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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