John McIntyre, mild-mannered editor for a great metropolitan newspaper, has fussed over writers’ work, to sporadic expressions of gratitude, for thirty years. He is The Sun’s night content production manager and former head of its copy desk. He also teaches editing at Loyola University Maryland. A former president of the American Copy Editors Society, a native of Kentucky, a graduate of Michigan State and Syracuse, and a moderate prescriptivist, he writes about language, journalism, and arbitrarily chosen topics. If you are inspired by a spirit of contradiction, comment on the posts or write to him at
john.mcintyre@baltsun.com.
Comments
May I brag about getting a live personal performance of this?
Posted by: Rosslyn | April 10, 2009 8:00 AM
I have no doubt that Robert the Single One would have appreciated this. Thank you, Professor.
Posted by: Laura Lee | April 10, 2009 11:06 AM
Good one! Hadn't heard that one before.
Posted by: PCB Rob | April 10, 2009 1:08 PM
Hmm, that's a new variant on me. My wife's family is half Irish, and they always told that joke like so:
* The Englishman calls over the bartender and says, "Barkeep, there's a fly in my beer. Please replace it."
* The Scotsman says "Waste not, want not". He picks the fly out of the beer, throws it away, goes on drinking.
* The Irishman grabs the fly by the back legs and shakes it, hollering "Spit it out, ya bastard! Spit it out!"
Posted by: Tom Lane | April 11, 2009 10:52 AM