"Peons of Praise"--The Author Said That

"Another words."

This isn't an accident. Not a typo. I've found this four times so far in an otherwise relatively literate manuscript.

Sigh.

another words
Reminds me of a person I knew who when selling a job would tell the customer, "That precludes -" Meaning, "encompasses," in his language.

Edgar. Somebody learns a new word and uses it. Right or wrong. What's the difference.

I take back what I said about literate. I just found, "People tend to gross over things."

I'm uninterested when someone says they are disinterested while meaning uninterested.

The "l" and the "r" are not even close.

That's a good one.

There was in the news here recently a story of a sign which was put up in a hospital, "RESURRECTION ROOM".

Though topical this week, it was nevertheless quickly changed to read "resuscitation".

I just encountered "breeches" of ethics. I had no idea that pants had morals.

I'm getting too old for this crap.

You need a leg up with that kind of woik, Boita. You're probably hard-pressed to keep from going meschuggina with this crap. (Nah, no puns on 'panting' for a better assignment or something.)

Andy, I'm not keeping from going meshuga. This book may push be over the edge at last. Filled with dashes and ellipses. Why? The authors do not have a clue about punctuation. I mean clueless. Without a clue!

I'm proofreading a book now in which neither the author nor the editor understands the difference between comprise and compose. Hey, get a dictionary, you joiks.

Sigh, it's a living--almost.

My current assignment must be written by someone who has never used a computer. He's still in typing mode. Instead of clicking on list, he types every line of a list starting with a tab. Lots of deleting going on. The same applies to long quotes.

It's always something.

To quote the immortal words of Michael Palin, "Perhaps he was dictating."

Are you proofing my recent "How to Macrame your Cat"?

how do I list things? I always just send these things in a long line separated by commas and , in parens I tell my assistant to make a list with bullits.

If I were writing and you ere editing me , I think I would drive you nuts also. I always just fly by my mistakes in the sake that Itll jut get on a page.Sometimes my assistant doesnt catch the bulk of them cause she uses WORD and its spellcheck (all mycreative spelling , so far do make up real words, )

Just started proofreading another book. Encountered, "When lightening strikes. . . "

Thud.

When I find something like this when I'm editing, I might make a face, fix the error, and move on. When I find this kind of thing when I'm proofreading, I get a little upset. Where was the editor? Granted that no editor is going to catch everything. But "lightening"?

Rethud.

Yeah. Heh. Anybody knows it ought to be "darkening."

Lightening? Verry alarmening!

Hey there's a new book out about (the tortured history of) spelling in English by a guy called Crystal.

Recommend it.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Spell-Out-Singular-English-Spelling/dp/1846685672/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347127186&sr=1-1

"Why is there an 'h' in ghost? William Caxton, inventor of the printing press and his Flemish employees are to blame: without a dictionary or style guide to hand in fifteenth century Bruges, the typesetters simply spelled it the way it sounded to their foreign ears, and it stuck. Seventy-five per cent of English spelling is regular but twenty-five per cent is complicated, and in Spell It Out, our foremost linguistics expert David Crystal extends a helping hand to the confused and curious alike. He unearths the stories behind the rogue words that confound us, and explains why these peculiarities entered the mainstream, in an epic journey taking in sixth century monks, French and Latin upstarts, the Industrial Revolution and the internet. By learning the history and the principles, Crystal shows how the spellings that break all the rules become easier to get right."

In the book I'm now editing, I found that the plural of call to action is call to actions.

I'm getting too old for this ****.

That's the kind of idiocy that would tend to send me screaming for the fire escape. GET ME OUT OF THIS DEN OF ILLITERACY!

Andy, Don't have a fire escape. And I'm too pooped to run and scream anywhere. I just say dirty words. The book ain't X rated, but I am.