Testy Copy Editors

Our new website is up and running at testycopyeditors.org. This board will be maintained as an archive. Please visit the new site and register. Direct questions to the proprietor, blanp@testycopyeditors.org
It is currently Mon Apr 29, 2024 3:44 am

View unanswered posts | View active topics


Board index » Talk Shop » General Discussion

All times are UTC - 5 hours




Forum locked This topic is locked, you cannot edit posts or make further replies.  Page 1 of 1
  [ 3 posts ] 
  Print view Previous topic | Next topic 
Author Message
majorbabs
 Post subject: Once more, with clarity
PostPosted: Fri Jul 23, 2004 3:23 pm 
Offline

Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 744
Location: HuskerLand
Would anyone who can speak in clear language offer comments on this graph from a NYT book review:<p>"Take a shivering phrase of Isaac Babel's: 'No iron spike can pierce a human heart as icily as a period in the right place." Style over content? Perhaps. But even though the subject was Maupassant it took Babel's time with the Cossacks to tip his phrase with iron. Suburban despair wouldn't do it. The rider requires the horse to give peril to his dexterity."<p>Huh?
Top
 Profile E-mail  
 
wirefly
 Post subject: Re: Once more, with clarity
PostPosted: Fri Jul 23, 2004 4:47 pm 
Offline

Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2004 12:01 am
Posts: 12
I'm not even sure where to begin ... . I think I was barely clinging to some scrap of coherence at first, but then that last line ... does this guy/girl/earthling know what he's talking about? Kind of ironic that the author being reviewed goes by the name "Babel," that being the Biblical tower where all the tongues were confused ... maybe it's just a trick to see who's really reading the NYT these days.<p>wirefly
(whose deterity may be in peril this very moment ... ?)
Top
 Profile E-mail  
 
EMorse
 Post subject: Re: Once more, with clarity
PostPosted: Fri Jul 23, 2004 4:52 pm 
Offline

Joined: Fri Mar 26, 2004 1:01 am
Posts: 1025
Location: The Lexington Avenue Spaceship
There's an extension available for Quark that allows you to instantaneously fill text boxes with dummy copy in a variety of gobbledygook languages (pig latin, Klingon, legalese, etc.). Apparently they've added litcrit to the options.
Top
 Profile E-mail  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Forum locked This topic is locked, you cannot edit posts or make further replies.  Page 1 of 1
  [ 3 posts ] 

Board index » Talk Shop » General Discussion

All times are UTC - 5 hours


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 97 guests

You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group

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."



Useful Links


Our 2003 ACES Handout
Our 2004 ACES Handout
Our 2005 ACES Handout
Our 2006 ACES Handout
Our 2009 ACES Handout
The Slot (Bill Walsh)
HeadsUp: The Blog
John McIntyre
Regret the Error
Banned for Life

TCE RSS Feed  [Valid RSS]