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majorbabs
 Post subject: Hey, no wonder Rodin was always thinking...
PostPosted: Thu Jul 08, 2004 10:00 am 
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Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 744
Location: HuskerLand
"As a writer George placed his trust in verbs and nouns, careful not to let the narrative go astray in the flowerbeds of showy adjectives. For the same reason he was equally wary as an editor, careful not to mess up somebody else's prose with decorative improvements. <p>'Editing,' he once said, 'is much simpler than writing. The image that comes to mind is one of a sculptor (the editor) improving on the clay figure of a rabbit (a writer's manuscript), just a tuck here and there to make it better: the ear needs to be fixed up, and maybe the author forgot to put a tail on it.'"<p>-- Harper's editor Lewis H. Lapham on the late author George Plimpton
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Bumfketeer
 Post subject: Re: Hey, no wonder Rodin was always thinking...
PostPosted: Thu Jul 08, 2004 10:11 am 
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Joined: Fri Nov 15, 2002 1:01 am
Posts: 3557
Location: Cusp of retirement, grave or both
Yup. That's the image that comes to mind when I am working on a 45-inch Capitol bureau story about nothing.
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Matthew Grieco
 Post subject: Re: Hey, no wonder Rodin was always thinking...
PostPosted: Thu Jul 08, 2004 10:25 am 
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Joined: Mon Mar 10, 2003 1:01 am
Posts: 2266
Location: New Jersey
Just chip away everything that doesn't look like the Capitol, Bumf.
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"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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