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Author	Message
J Kaufman	Post subject: This and that Posted: Sun Nov 11, 2012 5:12 pm
Joined: Mon Nov 14, 2005 3:47 pm Posts: 4655 Location: New York City	Quote: Copy editors have two main tasks: to protect their organizations from error and embarrassment and to protect the English language from encroaching barbarisms -- two tasks which are absolutely essential in this era -- in which we are losing our brains to the Internet. [Macon Telegraph]
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Phillip Blanchard	Post subject: Re: This and that Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2012 9:03 pm
Joined: Sun Apr 07, 2002 1:01 am Posts: 8342 Location: Bethesda, Md.	I feel no responsibility to "protect the English language from encroaching barbarisms," which in any event would be futile. Why not just say we fix stupid copy?
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KfitzR	Post subject: Re: This and that Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 11:39 pm
Joined: Thu Apr 18, 2002 12:01 am Posts: 836 Location: New Brunswick, Canada	More accurate; less poetic and sexy.
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Editer	Post subject: Re: This and that Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 11:44 pm
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2006 5:33 pm Posts: 1225 Location: Texas	Because what's a "You'll be sorry when I'm gone" screed without excessive dramatics?
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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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