Archives
- Moving on
- A spell of rough weather
- Later this week ...
- English majors to the fore!
- Grammarnoir 1, in audio
- Rules of the game
- A new taxonomy
- Cocking a snoot
- Best-of joke of the week: "The Remarkable Pig"
- Rules of the road
- The need not to know
- Test your wits
- Send me a man who reads
- Do that voodoo that who do
- What's your pleasure?
- And so it begins
- Best-of joke of the week: "The Castaway"
- The mark of scorn
- Stay away from question heads
- What the Dickens
- Watch this space
- Gag me with a copy editor
- A little light housekeeping
- A nation of immigrants hates immigration
- How work sustains us
- English ain't algebra
- Do you see what I see?
- Are you smarter than a fifth-grader?
- The war of the words
- Best-of joke of the week: "The Scottish Anatomy Professor"
- Back to business
- The doom of newspapers
- Lordy, is it 2012 already?
- Rumors of demise exaggerated
- For your good luck
- Everything is always going straight to hell
- The earworms of Christmas
- Another year, another word
- This bloody season
- On the eve
- Festivus felicitations to you all
- What eyebrows are for
- Enough with the "All are welcome"
- Now we are six
- Tree's up
- Some make their own luck
- Be afraid. Be very afraid.
- Who's to blame
- An oft-neglected comma
- Stunts
- The editor and the potty mouth
- It must be Monday
- Best-of joke of the week: "The Brewmasters"
- Ready, steady, GO
- You have neglected your loafing
- Your interest in distinctions
- What percent just don't care?
- Best-of joke of the week: "The Lawyer's Accident"
- Twoness
- McIntyre Friday complains
- Getting "uppity"
- You can call it "politically correct," if you like
- Yet still more from The Old Editor
- Monday morsels
- Heard melodies are indeed sweet
- It's nearly over
- Prescriptivists to the left, to the right, volleyed and thundered
- Still more from The Old Editor
- My blushes
- Best-of joke of the week: "The Turbulent Flight"
- Shun the infamous green bean casserole
- That nice little war
- Friday for you, Thursday for me
- Just leave English the hell alone
- No one way to write
- Second-worst Romenesko consequence
- How to get on Page One
- Best-of joke of the week: "The Three Brothers"
- There are no cornbread heresies
- More from the Old Editor
- A sad business
- Looking for work?
- Usage literalists
- Hon ho-hum
- Hours away from a pint
- Joke of the week: "The Dying Teetotaler"
- Get out your thumbs
- Major and minor
- Sweating the small stuff
- A less than romantic getaway
- What the Old Editor says
- No better than a common scold
- Invective and remonstrance
- Joke of the week: "The Headache"
- I wonder why they hate America so
- Take it all off
- The holiday cautions
- Colossal! Epic! Glorious!
- Too many words
- I am not about the numbers
- Every day in every way we are getting worse and worse
- Taking responsibility
- Who's lazy now?
- Joke of the week: "Late-Night Call"
- Sin boldly
- Self-abuse and journalism
- Enlightenment comes slowly
- You have to look at the evidence
- "Coffee" or "a coffee"?
- Not enraptured
- Telling stories
- Did I really use "staycation"?
- Joke of the week: "Time off"
- Tea for two
- Don't you know, they called the police in
- If you please, the Sixties are OVER
- It's all up to you now
- They call themselves Christians
- 10 tips for men
- Murder will serve
- Subscribe, subscribe
- Joke of the week: "The Marriage Counselor"
- The seat of power
- The seat of power
- Let them be heard
- The first three letters of "assertionist"
- Passive voice has its uses
- Weekend's over
- Joke of the week: "The Talking Dog"
- Back in the day
- A plan for you
- Not just here
- No more catering to peevers
- Mr. Molotov's legacy
- Infatuated with a book
- Prepare to pay toll
- Tell me when you stop*
- Keep an eye on your freedoms
- Joke of the week: "Don't Ask Questions"
- The semicolon won't bite you
- Nothing wrong with lowercase, dude
- Commas, and what you should know about them
- Let slip the dogs of Waugh
- Be bold with Bodoni
- Facile, yes; cipher, no
- The fruits of failure
- Unassigned reading
- They call it your day off
- Joke of the week: "The Matchmaker"
- Bourbon, a national treasure
- Two days
- No second opinions
- Somebody noticed me
- Of minute importance
- Bent on evil
- Hyper
- September 12
- Joke of the week: "The Sleeper Compartment"
- Ever the treasonous clerks
- You should look this good at a hundred
- Oh, the fracking you'll see
- English is a mess, and so is everything else
- Mr. Pietila's neighborhood
- Summer's end
- Holiday bonus
- Joke of the week: "The Bargain Hunter"
- If I may be permitted ...
- Last and past
- Headline here
- On this date
- Don't cut a wide one
- Prescription for prescriptivists
- The persistence of superstition
- In a hopeful manner
- Haven and harbor
- It's all words
- Joke of the week: "The Veteran Accountant"
- Back among you
- Sweet Old Bob recalled
- Awaiting the storm
- Optional, not compulsory
- Our chronicler of loons
- Fess up
- Farewell to Generalissimo Franco
- First day of class
- Immoral and irrational welcome here
- Joke of the week: "The Panhandler"
- More on the difficult craft
- Language is fine; people are the problem
- Baltimore, my Baltimore
- You are not the drum major
- Hey non non- nonnio
- Kardashian? Intellectual? Hmmm.
- You know damn well it's a word
- Even Michele Bachmann deserves better than this
- That's not what I meant at all
- One of the Founders wrote a dictionary
- Jokeless Monday
- All hail the market
- Say it ain't so, Jan Freeman
- Beach balcony book bourbon bliss*
- Books and words: a miscellany
- Joke of the week: "The Good Wife"
- Packing for the beach
- Truce
- You saw it here
- No escaping it
- Think you want to edit a magazine?
- Someone else can clean up the mess
- At the peevers' waterhole
- Add another peever to the list
- Curb your anthropomorphizing
- Before you start your slog through the week ...
- Before you start your slog through the week ...
- Joke of the week: "Dogs in a Bar"
- Are you trying too hard?
- The Republic trembles, but there's laundry to do
- So different in the '20s
- One is grammar; one is style
- You've got mail, but not here
- I'm Scotch, so pour me one
- "Ongoing" no longer nongoing
- Storm rising
- Let me tell you where to go
- More than who, what, when, where
- Many thanks for the mongrel bitch
- Use your words
- When it was bad, it was very, very bad
- Obstacle to ambition
- Joke of the week: "The Interstate"
- A Sunday in July
- A dash of restraint
- Intelligence, even in Texas
- Meretricious Albion
- Our God-given light bulbs
- You go, Grammar Girl
- Always look behind the curtain
- Wet marketing concept
- How to tell it's summer in Baltimore
- Journos are not Homer
- Is the weekend over already?
- Joke of the week: "The Rowing Team"
- Mourning Connie Knox
- So you think you can teach English
- Wait five years
- In praise of uncertainty
- Someone skipped Sunday school
- Whatever
- Over the top!
- A caution for prescriptivists
- It's a crime to write like that
- That damn final "e"
- No fear of loathing
- Garry Gene Barker, 1943-2011
- Do you have the Latin?
- You know the types
- Joke of the week: "The Soprano"
- The good old days of slavery
- Why is this so hard: premier/premiere?
- Around the table
- Copy editor, copyeditor, schmopyeditor
- Editors could learn from Apple
- "Allegedly" is a crutch
- Why is this so hard?
- Back with me?
- Cavalcade of Americana
- Joke of the week: "The checkup"
- 235 years
- Eighty-six the "1812"
- Yes! we have no mandamus
- American exceptionalism
- Disability and hypersensitivity
- The lights go out again
- Enough, already
- Give up: careen/career
- A day off
- Joke of the week: "In the Garden"
- Talking the code
- No, not that
- What year is it?
- Which will it be, guns or drugs?
- Not a venireman this time
- Body parts, body positions
- The parsley on your fish
- Those damn accent marks
- Joke of the week "Last Wishes"
- Father to sons
- Rising to the occasion
- Where indictments are handed
- You there
- Their to stay
- Incoming!
- Score one for the anti-hons
- Maybe you COULD teach English
- Post obitum
- How have you offended?
- Joke of the week: "Car Ride"
- Nice talk
- The Honfest goes on
- Let it go, hon, let it go
- Leave Oscar Mayer out of this
- Yes, there is a future for editing
- Hang the black crepe in Raleigh
- You may fire at will
- Which side are you on, boys?
- Mr. Revere's latest ride
- A little more on pie
- Joke of the week: The Bronze Statue
- Comments pending
- In defense of pie
- One nation, proud but a little jittery
- Apologies
- You hate "went missing"? I could care less
- Going, going, gone missing
- Joke of the week: "You Can't Take It With You"
- Wackadoodle dandy
- It's Friday, and I can't be bothered
- Worker, know your tools
- Obama fake birth certificate Britney Spears' nude pics
- The rebel yell
- This is where you get to be a bigot
- That annoying voice on the radio
- Joke of the Week: "The Lecture"
- Now that we're still here ...
- Closing time
- Shall we? I think not
- A moment of silence
- What rules are for
- 174 years
- After demolition, reconstruction
- The things editors see
- One of the better doctor jokes
- Some catching up to do
- End times
- Ease up on the quotation marks
- A prescriptivist's lot is not a happy one
- Distinctions that matter
- Metaphor pop quiz
- Wave goodbye as you rise into the sky
- The world will little note, nor long remember
- The craft so long to lerne
- Speak up
- Lay your aching head on the pillow
- At the interview
- Look at the numbers
- Ugly, just ugly
- Ground Zero
- Be on the alert
- Don't be shy
- The comeback kid
- That man and his pronouns
- A taste for the pawky?
- Britspeak for Yanks
- Less or fewer
- Two cranks don't make a right
- The show will go on
- Editor, stat!
- How the dead lie
- Something for Monday
- Julep time
- In case you were curious about the Great Vigil ...
- We have a diagnosis
- More light, more light
- Rounding out the day
- I fear that the gentleman is a coxcomb
- Busk it, daddy, eight to the bar
- Say you're sorry
- The great unknown middle
- What's said is said
- Spritzing the bonobos
- Somebody asked
- Up the nose
- It might well be spring
- A head for figures
- The Scum Paper
- When we misspeak
- A shot of wry
- That bogus BBC book list
- The midnight hour
- Who's your boss?
- Yeah, it's a lawyer joke
- Burrs under the saddle
- Murn day
- AP? Nah. FakeAP's better
- Don't call me Editor McIntyre
- Now it starts
- Our wayward English
- A cheerleader for capitalism
- Boys, we've lost
- Yes, it's in the dictionary. Now pipe down
- Sic not
- Still OK by me
- E-mail, email, anal
- Play ball
- Belly up to the bar
- Be well
- MOMENTOUS AP STYLE CHANGES
- New York Times, let's talk turkey
- Product placement
- Not everyone can be in Phoenix
- The toper's holiday
- My prescription
- I lost an hour this weekend and now it's Monday
- Come on, people, keep up
- Skip the team talk; there's work to be done
- Jam cake time
- Editing, the subtle pleasure
- Whose pronoun is it?
- Obloquy as a hobby
- By the way
- Dearly beloved ...
- What the encyclopedia salesman saw
- First Sunday without "On Language"
- Nobody cares you're an editor
- Uh-oh
- That Libyan strongman
- Grammarnoir 3: The wages of syntax, Part 4
- How to pronounce it, Part 2, revived
- How to pronounce it, Part 1, revived
- How to make a martini, revived
- How to tie a bow tie, revived
- National Grammar Day is tomorrow
- It's not just Charlie Sheen that's nuts
- The week that is
- Write like people, not like newspapers
- Your Monday amusements
- Have you written The Times yet?
- Tell The Times what you think
- Don't tap that
- Curb your abbreviation
- Another dumb newspaper decision
- Grammarnoir: The wages of syntax, Part 3
- The editor's frailties
- The words you love to hate
- Transgender and pronouns
- Back at my post
- Don't hang the lexicographers
- Showing your work
- Grammarnoir: The wages of syntax, Part 2
- How it goes
- Please, no wagering
- What is WRONG with people?
- Since you're wasting time anyway ...
- The Minnesota farceur
- The previous Grammarnoirs
- GRAMMARNOIR: The wages of syntax, Part 1
- A crowded day
- That dangerous book, the Bible
- Accomplishing pressure in the academy
- Among the locals
- Not quite the voltage we expected
- Preview of coming attractions
- Frabjous day
- What? No joke?
- Whose motive
- Hyperventilating on crime
- Nonpartisan
- Enjoy the show
- Witness to history
- More white death from the sky
- Meum et tuum
- Too good to miss
- Get me rewrite
- Shocking undergraduate writing
- I say, Holmes
- Sense amid the clamor of nonsense
- Not everyone got the memo
- Best comment ever
- Your online ethics
- Veterans of the War on Hopefully
- The lawyer's accident
- Dr. Bowdler's heir
- The Lord's pronouns
- Daddy's home
- London beckons
- Wrapping up
- I will do better in 2011
- The beau bow
- We can turn it off
- Throw out the trash
- Last joke of the year
- Give me but ten who are stout-hearted men
- Five years
- The joke is back
- Try the pancakes
- I am not holly jolly, nor am meant to be
- My own year in words
- Monoglot America just gets monoglotter
- Set upon
- Correction
- Ending on a somber note
- My sweet old myopia
- GRRRRRRRRRRR
- A modest defense of Denise Whiting
- The 'hon' kerfuffle
- Where to put the quotation marks
- Brenda writes -30-
- Fairy tales can't come true; it won't happen to you
- I'd like to thank the Academy ...
- A little late today
- My old Kentucky home
- A point of honor
- They're testing me
- Equivalence of "that" and "who"
- Sharpening the quills
- Don't let's be beastly to the barbarians
- Imagine my chagrin
- The TSA can't control how you talk
- Don't disparage the adjective
- Be careful what you're thankful for
- Say no to the infamous green bean casserole
- Word and deed
- Gentlemen, roll your crusts
- Another week that was
- Grammar like Mother used to make
- Even for a columnist
- Just issue a diploma already
- Would you buy a used term paper from these people?
- OK by me
- The work of the Devil
- No such honor
- The goyim wear hats too?
- They pay me to do this
- Borg sports reporting
- Headline goes here
- Colonel McCormick would be pleased
- Just look it up
- Lines in the sand
- Filthy liberal rag
- Rejected copy editor comebacks
- Watch your majorities
- Such is fame
- Monday already?
- The editor and the renovator
- Dreck in the halls
- One of those things
- Try, try again
- Don't be a crybaby
- Could you care less? Indeed you could
- A Monday two-fer
- A flutter among the Janeites
- A taste for toddy
- Bind and loose
- So you think you can refute, do you?
- AP Stylebook is asking for it
- No need for tension about tenses
- Crap, is it Monday already?
- The week that was, the day that is
- Want to slap AP Stylebook around?
- I may not be a doctor, but ...
- The unkindest cut
- Hello, I must be going
- This is the song that never ends
- A poem for Columbus Day
- Double your pleasure; double your fun
- Will C-SPAN become Comedy Central?
- At least they didn't say 'limn'
- Filthy pagan Christmas
- Try your hand at it, if you dare
- Don't give a hoot about whom?
- The great copy editors
- In the background
- Tune in tomorrow morning
- Get a running start on the week
- Teach the children well
- English embiggened
- Sexing butterflies
- No, no, no, no, no
- Our fair city
- How ya gonna keep 'em
- Leave it lay
- A word a week
- A call to arms for punctuation
- Crow on the menu at Johns Hopkins
- Language Gestapo
- Boys will be louts
- Belated joke
- Quick, the Flit!
- Using big words
- Another comma nailed down
- A student reads this blog?
- On probation
- All power to the pedagogues?
- So you're looking to become a crackpot
- What editors look for
- Brace yourself for Punctuation Day
- Looking back, and forward
- The breakfast test
- Wind and limn
- When they get to know you
- A pleasant coincidence
- Life and limn
- Please, no mosque-burnings or ethnic cleansings
- Mencken undiluted
- Joke of the Week: The Old Couple
- Grandfather clause
- My dark secret revealed
- The fun in finger-pointing
- An experiment with the "Joke of the Week"
- In the White Queen's realm
- A day for the books
- Just for fun
- The things they ask me
- I'm going to tell you one more time
- Ragweed Sunday
- Keep your crotchets under control
- Reading is optional
- Making meanings from scrap
- Feel the power
- A forthright political stand
- A spokesperson for sanity
- Monday, bloody Monday again
- A room, a table, and a dozen chairs
- Neither a bore nor a pander be
- Stand up for the last Plantagenet
- Copy editors look things up
- Get out the tinfoil hats
- You'd need a dictionary for that
- First amendments first
- Senseless waste of trees
- Ask the experts?
- Not stupid, just afraid
- Any poetesses out there?
- Not quite a laff riot
- Heresy compounded
- Some assembly required
- What's that in the bay?
- Sign here
- Chairman Wednesday
- How will you join the ancestors?
- Followers of Mr. Waugh
- All right, all right, keep the extra space
- The sinister vault
- Just one space, please
- I'll have a double
- Not the Dayton Cox, the Cincinnati Cox
- Maxims for editors
- Fetch me a switch, AP Stylebook
- Another whack at the AP Stylebook
- Noises we've heard before
- The big O
- What Mr. Jefferson said
- Home today
- Is it Monday already?
- Summer meal
- Defending Mr. Mencken
- Two words for writers of feature stories
- Not attending Chelsea Clinton's wedding
- Ah, journalism
- Mommy dearest
- Editors are worth something after all
- Oh dear, and in The New Yorker, too
- You deserve a break
- A visionary idea
- Proud citizen of Moronia
- I don't want to pick crab either
- Plug in; keep up
- Back in the day
- The Rules of Disparagement
- Don't shrink from the polysyllable
- Word snobbery
- How cornball can I get?
- Suchlike
- English as she is legislated
- Cranky in the heat
- No difference
- And you call yourself a prescriptivist?
- Punctuational polygamy
- Bonus Monday
- Under the hood
- Turn that thing off
- Persuaded or convinced?
- Don't get in an huff
- Counsel may approach
- Glimpsed ...
- Cocking a snook
- The burden of omniscience
- Yes, it is hot enough for me, thank you
- Where's the love for Dudley Buck?
- For a more glorious Fourth
- Friday on a holiday weekend
- If I've told you once ...
- Politics and language
- You love us, you hate us, we're fine with that
- Is homophobia wrong?
- What a father dreams of
- Sounds like blah, blah, blah
- A woman under those robes
- Please curb your writers
- Language before rules
- Language sneaks up on you
- Sit-down comedy
- Totemic tomes
- The sadness of the teacher's pet
- Summer tipples
- Now there's a badge
- Speak proper, or else
- It suffices
- The old mailbag
- The way we tilt now
- The self-righteous inherit the earth
- A nice mess
- Minutes of the Academy
- The books we turn back to
- Speaking initially
- I have a bad feeling about this
- Summertiiiiime ...
- Telling all
- You were badly advised
- Sometimes on Sunday
- Judging but not judgmental
- Turn your radio on
- You have the right to remain silent
- Deeply, deeply shallow
- The room where everyone goes
- Give me liberty or -- oh, never mind
- The importance of leafiness
- The Fridge of San Luis Rey*
- You've got to be carefully taught
- Where I live
- Topping up
- Many happy returns, Baltimore Sun
- Back to those leafy suburbs
- Nietzsche is pietzsche
- The videos
- Weaning
- Your happy place: Get in on it
- Crime and pun-ishment
- Did you miss me?
- New blog
- A good run
- Regrettable errors
- So it has come to this
- Strict, stricken, Strunk
- Second-best is good enough
- Evil surrounds us
- Watch out
- Surely you jest: The parks department
- Stirring up the animals
- A burr under the saddle
- Against the grain
- Sometimes people are just wrong
- All the noise
- Avast, Matey, heave to
- The lifelong craft
- Surely you jest: The young scholar
- The Wrath of Fark
- How we talk here
- Watch out for rug burn
- It ain't the Pentateuch
- Do typos count?
- We're mad as hell
- A Wikipedia challenge
- Touchy, those Wikipediasts
- Surely you jest: The three pints
- Pile the dead-tree media on the pyre
- Unheard melodies are sweeter
- Mama, that man talks funny
- The errant hand
- The plight of the copy desk
- So that's where my head is
- How 'bout those O's
- Over-ripeness is all
- Shut up, he explained*
- Surely you jest: Captured by cannibals
- You know I'm right
- We can't handle the truth
- Coming and going
- 'Verbing weirds language'
- Democracy and participation
- Our moribund newspapers
- Useless, but time-consuming
- Your Nunc Dimittis
- They said it couldn't be cut
- Surely you jest: At the guillotine
- It's only spelling
- The manufacture of bogus rules
- Where is Mount Vernon?
- Don't get tense over tenses
- 200 words you can well do without
- Surely you jest: Three British wishes
- Fixing other people's errors of grammar
- 'They' as a singular
- So our headlines stink
- This needs edited
- The luck of the Irish
- Thanks a heap, Merriam-Webster
- For children of all ages
- Cranky old guy hates Twitter
- Surely you jest: The brewmasters
- My worst fear
- How to be an editor
- Crime in the neighborhood
- Here's where the city thinks you live
- Not my neighborhood's keeper
- This is not a rule
- Commas and the limits of discretion
- You are what you speak
- Grammarnoir: The complete serial
- On the air today
- The rule you don't break
- The secrets of management
- Grammar on the air
- Hiatus
- The desk makes the difference
- Call my lawyer
- You don't need proof; you have the Internet
- A temple of books
- Mr. Hitler's prepositions
- Purism and futility
- The Fat Man chuckles
- The cattle
- A Grammar Nazi's fate
- Surely you jest: The motorist
- "What are we going to do now?" she asked
- Tone it down a little, would you?
- A plethora of pleonasms
- Wikipedia's limits, by one who knows
- Down those mean sentences I walk alone
- The birthday boys: Darwin and Lincoln
- Tell me where it hurts
- Surely you jest: The dead lawyer
- Wikipedia word salad
- Why newspapers get things wrong
- The two kinds of people
- Hide! National Grammar Day looms
- Delving into the shallows
- Surely you jest: With Shaw's compliments
- Why commas matter
- You that have ears to hear
- Before you pun, fill out this form
- [Sic] transit and other matters
- OMG! They're texting!
- English goes where it will
- Wiki-wacky
- How I got my job
- Surely you jest: The probationary assassin
- McIntyre is having a cow about Wikipedia
- The staff meeting anatomized
- Facebook and list mania
- Crisis of authority
- You know you're in Baltimore when ...
- Vexations of local nomenclature
- More is written than read
- Surely you jest: The professor and the student
- References you can trust
- Wikipediaphilia
- I said, get Mitty
- Potemkin doesn't live in this village
- Surely you jest: Ole and Lena's pastries
- Listen for the apostrophe
- Enormities
- Permission to address the chair
- How to pronounce it -- 2
- Surely you jest: The Swedish lodger
- The worst opening imaginable
- Stationery, with an 'e'
- The envy of academics
- The orator's art
- The origins of error
- Over the transom
- Surely you jest: The pocket watch
- A million reasons not
- Surely you jest: Out of the office
- Abbreviations, initialisms and acronyms
- Surely you jest: A remarkable pig
- Mistering the dead
- A concrete explanation
- Surely you jest: Disraeli's dinner
- More on 'disenfranchised'
- Surely you jest: Man with a parrot
- Didn't you get the memo?
- Clearing the desk
- Surely you jest: Man on a desert island
- Best line heard in the workplace
- Not a team player
- Surely you jest: The anatomy professor
- The worst line you ever read
- You think you've got cobbles?
- Just say who
- Take that, Chicago Manual of Style
- My object all sublime
- Surely you jest: The three brothers
- He read the OED
- The Second Amendment and the militia
- Snarkiness validated
- It knows my type
- Dr. Johnson and the critic's role
- The carnage
- Repeat: We do not have to run dumb surveys
- Next let's outsource the readers
- Painful cases
- The calm before
- Administrative head counting
- The slipperiness of the rules
- How to pronounce it
- Unsafe at any speed
- Why newspapering stumbles
- Come into the parlor
- Palintology
- Name yourselves
- Uncharitable remark
- So many books, so little time
- The word in Milwaukee
- Go roll an hoop
- Chock full of metaphors
- WARNING Do not read beyond this point
- Give me back my legions!
- Not a dry eye
- Wrong again
- Baltimore words summed up
- Plenty of chaff, but where's the wheat?
- Some Baltimore words
- I pray you, good people, forbear
- A Baltimore lexicon
- You Don't Say regrets
- Bring back the espantoon
- Enough of Palin's wardrobe
- Finger the perp in the heist
- Just the facts, Ma'am
- I am not an alumni
- Naturalized immigrants
- Ten things you learn in an election
- Clever and modest and misunderstood
- Enemies as a gauge of one's worth
- Less is not more
- Then too
- Examining the entrails
- Dumb ideas never die
- The monkey house
- First things
- Lowell O. Denton
- Don't be so sensitive
- A deadline is near
- Head cases
- Great moments in the English language -- 2
- Great moments in the English language
- Read somebody else
- The cost of virtue
- Two views
- The Copy Editor's Temperament
- No class
- There were giants in those days -- 2
- It's the same old story
- Hit parade
- How to judge a book by its cover
- A ringing endorsement
- We look so natural
- Her Majesty regrets
- Mr. Jarrell's academic zoological park
- Misplaced courtesy
- Slash!
- Punctuate with care
- Sheer incompetence
- I am not Owl Meat
- Beneath the brouhaha
- Heave to, ye scurvy swab
- They printed THAT?
- Articles of faith
- I am not making this up
- The Oxford comma and the prince's religion
- Punctuated equilibrium
- Not to everyone's taste
- Defenders' Day
- The war on error
- Thank you, Mr. Pratt
- More correct than you
- Mind your own business
- Strunk-struck
- A congressional innocent
- Avast there, you scurvy dogs
- Position, position, position
- For those anaerobic meetings
- Grammar isn't everything
- I'm still here
- Men's fashion tips
- Just good enough
- Summer reading
- Grammar vigilantes' comeuppance
- Oh, keep your peeves to yourself
- I'm not a doctor, but ...
- Still couldn't care less
- I'm disinterested, and I could care less
- Tell me all about it
- That elongated yellow fruit
- Yes! We have no bananas
- Is sex necessary?*
- My misunderstanding
- Why not the best?
- SOLONS SLATE PARLEY
- God's pronouns
- Bogus degrees, mutilations and mics
- Short takes
- The joy of rant
- What's in the dictionary
- Recipe alert
- The world's greatest fast food
- Who-whom smackdown
- Readers -- who needs 'em?
- Sensible shamanism
- Punctuate this, fella
- What he said
- A nice derangement of epitaphs
- Shameless self-promotion and nepotism
- Good, fair, serious, critical
- All fuch ftuff
- Catching up
- English doesn't need your help
- That voice you hear in your head
- The way we write now
- We're outsourcing the cat
- How to make a martini
- A morsel for lexicographers
- A lost craft
- Cassandra was right
- Don't call it Styrofoam
- No Oxfording, please
- Thought for the day
- Are you being served?
- Elitism in perspective
- War and fruit
- The 'h' you say
- I'm not dead yet
- Grow up
- The rest is history
- How to use a pocket handkerchief
- Native son
- Sun errs
- Hot enough for you?
- J'accuse
- Listen to the doctor
- The portentous tone
- How to tie a bow tie
- Who's afraid of the copy editor?
- Troop, troops, trooper, troupe, trouper
- The more things change ...
- How big is life?
- Blood and the land
- Don't sic Lou Dobbs on me
- Illegal immigrants and crime
- It's E.E. Cummings
- Raving old white guys
- Insert hyphen here
- Since you asked
- Free advice
- Bracket creep
- Those damn copy editors*
- 'Words'
- Splittists
- You're not from around here, are you?
- Block that metaphor
- My readers, bless their hearts
- William James explains it all
- Can't we all just get along? Again
- "Press" is also a verb
- So you want to be an editor
- Guardian of propriety
- Commas, apostrophes and more
- "No, not that," he cried hopelessly
- Don't Tase me, bro
- Mr. Young returns
- Anybody remember who's president?
- A drink with the author
- Here we go
- Don't waste your time
- Croquet, anyone?
- With friends like this
- What would the MLA say?
- Some say
- Copy desk blues
- You never saw such a bunch
- Show me your badge
- Asked and answered
- Down with the czar
- Just the opposite
- The Huffington Post discovers the secret
- Who knew anybody liked 'Male/Female'?
- Anger mismanagement
- The doctors' plot
- Possession is not nine-tenths of it
- Check your guns at the door
- Here's the thing
- Last volley
- Second that amendment
- Grammar, guns and the Constitution
- Just between us
- Know your copy editors
- Great Caesar's ghost, it IS a word
- I am not a doctor
- Meet Professor Blorenge
- If you're pals with Patrick
- Talk sense about marriage
- Fleeting fame
- Sorry, but no
- Ancient advice
- Many happy returns, Henry Fowler
- Respect my authoritay*
- On that we might agree
- Divine judgment
- Just stupid, I guess
- The day after
- Who will guard the grammarians?
- The gall to use big words
- We saw what you wrote; we know who you are
- Man who can't sing reviews soprano
- Keep a civil tongue in your head
- Wintry mix
- Mr. Young's progress
- Chin-chin
- Oh, stop whining
- Just six words, and no more
- Meanwhile, back at the ranch
- Editing is not a frill
- Corporate has another great idea
- Here's the question
- Me, myself and I
- A goodly number
- Pot luck
- A repentant sinner
- Hey, look over there!
- Are you ready for the Day of Judgment?
- 'All ways are my ways'
- Hubba-hubba
- The finest in citizen journalism
- A threadbare aristocracy
- Here's the secret password
- Beware the Fourth of March
- A Britney-Spears-free zone
- Say it louder
- Transparent pie and dressing balls
- A chat with Steve Young
- Diktats, edicts, fiats and ukases*
- What winter is good for
- The glamour of grammar
- The One True Fried Chicken
- No apologies
- It's over when it's over
- Stop me if you've heard this one
- Blurred meanings
- Yo don't think so
- Steve Young on the mend
- An excellent question
- Best news of 2008 to date
- Lying, cheating and stealing
- The Young report: positive
- Haven't seen it, probably won't
- A light goes out
- The elements
- Become a better person
- Don't make me come over there
- A favorable report
- Gresham's blogs
- Turning a corner
- Twelve days
- Encouraging words
- Lord Lytton's heirs
- Second anniversary
- The bivouac of the homeless
- Premature optimism
- Gallimaufry
- More on Steve Young
- Johnsonian maxims
- Writing comes first
- The psychology of editing
- Obituary
- An opportunity to contribute
- A delay
- And now this
- In deep sorrow
- Stop it; just stop it
- Told you so
- Like playing the piano with mittens on
- First not always best
- Favorite British monosyllables
- Proceed at your own risk
- Snap decision
- Let us now praise famous editors
- Publish and be damned
- And mind your manners
- Watch your step
- Clueless at the top
- Double-dipping
- Media bias
- Think you're smart, do you?
- Grrrrrrrrrrr-2
- Red alert!
- The main things
- My biggest mistakes
- Conduct for gents
- House and home-2
- A brief recess
- Whose story is it?
- Not just gay talk
- Orientation, not preference
- Not an error
- Argument from authority
- Female trouble
- From "fanatic"
- Now listed at Technorati.com
- How many boyfriends had Albus Dumbledore?
- House and home
- O.K. by me in America*
- Just sack all the editors
- The Sun regrets
- Cranky Old Guy redux
- Silver
- Come over to the dark side
- Great moments in copy desk history-III
- The naked lapel
- Down Memory Lane to Tobacco Road
- Ask me if I care
- There, there, no harm meant
- Strict sense
- Prone to error
- Lancing and draining
- The x-words
- Inflect this
- Nobody else said boo about it
- Nerds of the world, unite
- A new arrival
- Coupling
- Some stuff
- Trope-mongers
- Great moments in copy desk history-II
- See you in church
- Stormy weather
- Broad stripes, bright stars
- One in 10
- The top 10
- OED, please note
- Ignorance, Madam, pure ignorance
- The stark facts
- Great moments in copy desk history
- So you call yourself a journalist
- It is too a word
- What ya gonna do?
- Once more into the breach
- Just write what they said
- That golden age
- The pickles are ours
- The most important part of the story
- No holes in the sky
- What I've learned
- Equine-powered itinerant produce retailer
- The lore
- A man breaks into a house
- A pebble in the path
- A-rabs and Arabs
- Credit where credit is due
- Vent your spleen here
- Race and crime
- Just throw the ball already
- More in sorrow than in anger
- Heavy-handed plodder
- Career choice
- Inquest on a sentence
- A nation cringes
- The test of our mettle
- What 'is' is
- Caught
- Stones unturned
- Tour group
- Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
- Swing those hips
- The grit in the salad
- The name of the game
- We've heard that before
- Appearances of impropriety
- The sophisticates will get it
- The plural media
- Pomposity
- A few days
- Went missing? Get lost
- Smart people
- Missing in action
- More than parsley
- Short stuff
- Emily Dickinson on the copy desk
- Get rid of it
- Tossing the glove
- All the answers
- Unfair to Cadillacs
- Now hear this
- Lame prose
- Nothing about Rush Limbaugh
- 30 percent
- Turnabout
- Why they hate us
- Is there a doctor in the house?
- Editors don't like anything
- Those people talk funny
- Liberal orthography
- Pooled ignorance
- Pieces of string
- Obiter dicta
- Know-it-alls
- Respectfully dissent
- Spot the error
- How are the mighty fallen
- Due reverence
- Not bewitched by Wikipedia
- The English have a word for it
- Smelling bias
- Judgment day
- On the spike
- I'm not that John McIntyre
- It's in the dictionary
- Word games
- Return of the grumpy old guy
- Grumpy old guy
- Hearing voices
- Raw sex
- If beggars could question
- Hey, apostrophize this!
- Serenity now
- The data is/are in
- Not interested
- Now for the name-calling
- Automatic writing
- Not in the dictionary
- Oh, the impact
- States do not have colors
- Things that we ought not to have done
- The few, the proud, the attentive
- Attention, troops
- Clear your mind of cant
- Lawyer letters
- A mongrel language
- The comfort of error
- It didn't take long
- A number of things
- A copy editor's haiku
- We are not correctional officers
- Can't we all just get along?
- The best batter you ever ate
- We're all students
- Things people get wrong
- It does too matter
- Oh, the suffering
- Whose side are you on?
- Find an expert
- You just can't win
- Married to the dictionary
- Here endeth the lesson
- Speak English, or else
- Mistakes were made
- Still no prisons? Still no workhouses?
- Sick of it, just sick of it
- Respect for the cloth
- Heckuva job, Brownie
- Britlish
- Nasty stuff
- It's a funny old world
- And your little dog too
- There were giants in those days
- Unsatisfactory choices
- Nobody knows the trifles I've seen
- What the journalists read
- Spell it, but don't say it
- We don't say that here
- Gnats, swarms of gnats
- You said it
- Fascism in fashion
- I'm an ink-stained wretch myself
- Here lies ...
- What's this about Realtors?
- What I don't care about
- Those amazing wordsmiths
- Taking our medicine
- Our amazing wordsmiths
- Local option
- Going native
- Linnaeus on the copy desk
- Take that
- Bring me the head of a usage commentator
- A blonde walks into a bar
- Coffee on the piazza
- Take this prescription and call me in the morning
- Let a hundred flowers bloom
- Shoot if you must this old gray head
- Heads above the rest
- Accusations
- Who cares?
- Author, author
- It's just that way
- The copy editor copy-edited
- That cup of coffee, that morning paper
- If I'm so smart ...
- An unfortunate lapse
- Which side are you on?
- Don't forget to write
- Only in the paper
- Nix not; neither shall you nab
- Always was wrong, always will be
- Peevish
- Because I say so
- There's a word for it
- Objet rechauffe
- Speak English, please
- IT'S A DOGGIE-DOG WORLD
- Isn't that special?
- The one and the many
- We called him MR. Pryor
- The customer is not always right
- Is e-mail speech or writing?
- You can quote me
- Where THAT WORD came from
- Warts and all
- Up or down
- Standing up for the semicolon
- Errors, emendations and apologies
- Aw, shucks
- A singular controversy
- Strict construction
- That which we dispute
- Quiz yourself: just the facts
- Bad words
- Not a dime's worth of difference
- Italian Englished
- Strike the colors
- Irritations: Obnoxious pleonasms
- You could look it up
- Irritations: The false range
- The wayward comma
- More in sorrow than in snarking
- Misplaced elegance
- Everyone is entitled to his/her/their opinion
- What they taught you was wrong
- An aroma of skunk
- Ain't it the truth
- A quiz for readers
- IF U CN RD THS
- Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?
- Error sometimes reigns
Keep reading
About John McIntyre
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.
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