Monday, October 22nd, 2007

Time	Event
2:24p	I'm suddenly curious Maybe there's no way to calculate this, but I wonder.... Can someone fill in the blank in the following sentence?  "Providing ten years of top-quality health care for everyone in the US would cost roughly what the US is spending in Iraq every ________." (134 Comments | Comment on this)
11:47p	When good copy editors go bad, or good, or something Teresa is going to love this one.  Chica found it.  For starters (if I can get through this without a mistake it'll be a miracle), I'm going to quote one of my favorite Rex Stout passages.  This is from, "Method Three for Murder:"     "I demand an explanation.  I intend to hold you to account for alienating the affection of my wife."     "Affections," Wolfe said.     "What?"     "Affections.  In that context the plural is used."  He lifted the glass and drank, and licked his lips.     Kearns stared at him.  "I didn't come here," he said, "to have my grammar corrected."     "Not grammar.  Diction." Now, I love that.  But what makes it even better (in a sick way) is that, in my copy (Three at Wolfe's Door, Bantam Books, 4th printing, May 1978), the first occurrence of "affection" is actually "affections," which destroys the joke.  What happened should be obvious.  A diligent copy editor saw the term, paying no attention to the substance of the conversation, and corrected it, thus destroying it. Got to love it!      (28 Comments | Comment on this)

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