tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-178582392024-03-10T15:11:02.092-07:00Me and YoboAddisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01049845782759507926noreply@blogger.comBlogger50125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17858239.post-35944213880181916272012-12-04T19:16:00.001-08:002014-12-22T19:09:13.049-08:00“It's important to have a look.” I<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpCRtQQX61aeUJ04UzugraUa6oVYTmqY26hqYvIp9z4xLWed-lEJDOoR7lisS4kQ6YYjNSdAz22UvGE9Ime9KvVm6zNskzElHnsJg2zTusg1P3ubOKuD2roMroNnhvZkmot70mUw/s1600/DSCN0157.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpCRtQQX61aeUJ04UzugraUa6oVYTmqY26hqYvIp9z4xLWed-lEJDOoR7lisS4kQ6YYjNSdAz22UvGE9Ime9KvVm6zNskzElHnsJg2zTusg1P3ubOKuD2roMroNnhvZkmot70mUw/s320/DSCN0157.jpg" height="320" width="236" /></a></div>
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Her nametag is hard to read: Poodle.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
It’s important to have a look. A signature. Be someone. So people will remember you. You all think you're so special. You’re a dime a dozen. There are hundreds, no, thousands of you out there, studying, auditioning, going here, there, hither and yon. You expect people to remember you if you don’t have a look?</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
From <i>Master Class</i> by Terence McNally</blockquote>
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<br />Addisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01049845782759507926noreply@blogger.com0New York, NY, USA40.7143528 -74.005973140.6662108 -74.0849371 40.7624948 -73.9270091tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17858239.post-71013814034836835852012-10-02T19:37:00.001-07:002014-12-22T18:14:34.551-08:00All Lit Up<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpL4o9YjkbU7ojyrCM5C1x_KlkLDyIsHEdPkNhuFBRmtxRfKG2WlMnn_UD1jqvnJp2itFXY0vlKRCbRLBhSAqNDXSwPmeK_MwAYscPMOMWpnJqVwcRM_UGZmUF26E1kIlagszkIw/s1600/2012+10+02+subway+snapshot+cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpL4o9YjkbU7ojyrCM5C1x_KlkLDyIsHEdPkNhuFBRmtxRfKG2WlMnn_UD1jqvnJp2itFXY0vlKRCbRLBhSAqNDXSwPmeK_MwAYscPMOMWpnJqVwcRM_UGZmUF26E1kIlagszkIw/s320/2012+10+02+subway+snapshot+cropped.jpg" height="315" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Morning view, #7 line</td></tr>
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This could turn into a blog of pictures of people sleeping on the subway. What I liked about this was contrast between how the tablet lit up the guy’s face while the people on either side were sleeping. The way his hair stands straight up is a bonus. I’m not sure if the “Discovering Columbus” poster is a distraction or a comment.Addisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01049845782759507926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17858239.post-48817762015067866092012-09-25T19:51:00.002-07:002014-12-22T18:12:03.945-08:00Chilling Out<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQLWYdVHtw4FIHn6g0J6_dIKYKVtM7XfN1HTKGXoYNG9seJFCrhcsLKrjl5s4KV3yjEpYjLduuaMe3Ju45USfXOrmax1h7bt3nDIb2Bbu8ZwBowu4KO-j-sxTYYctPQ432ANKVhg/s1600/NYPL+Steps+cropped,+edited.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQLWYdVHtw4FIHn6g0J6_dIKYKVtM7XfN1HTKGXoYNG9seJFCrhcsLKrjl5s4KV3yjEpYjLduuaMe3Ju45USfXOrmax1h7bt3nDIb2Bbu8ZwBowu4KO-j-sxTYYctPQ432ANKVhg/s400/NYPL+Steps+cropped,+edited.jpg" height="400" width="317" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NYPL Steps</td></tr>
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This shot comes from a series I took while walking past the New York Public Library building. The late afternoon sun made it difficult to get a consistent exposure but editing software compensates for that. It's just a snapshot, but what the heck.Addisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01049845782759507926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17858239.post-52124137395879105062012-09-24T19:12:00.002-07:002014-12-22T18:13:26.269-08:00Tradition Meets the 21st Century<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQz42koQInzPhSRgM3o3cL25ZY6yom_-T_rgzTxEV-Nlf0QoExV8aZbA4paGZA0XIF1uISZ4RqjoXFIKAOHrSkFsfKfrnbsQM2aFbQWMseif0yGNoZ3452jrNeB_iY0fil23SlHQ/s1600/DSCN0070.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQz42koQInzPhSRgM3o3cL25ZY6yom_-T_rgzTxEV-Nlf0QoExV8aZbA4paGZA0XIF1uISZ4RqjoXFIKAOHrSkFsfKfrnbsQM2aFbQWMseif0yGNoZ3452jrNeB_iY0fil23SlHQ/s320/DSCN0070.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Waiting For A Train, 2012</td></tr>
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I thought the contrast between the smartphone and the traditional headscarf and long dress was striking. And how about that bag. Could it be redder?Addisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01049845782759507926noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17858239.post-41513174870743528242012-09-19T18:45:00.001-07:002012-09-25T20:02:29.476-07:00My new cameraI bought my first digital camera, a Nikon S3300 point-and-shoot, on eBay about two weeks ago and I'm learning how to use it. It's been almost 40 years since I spent any time taking pictures and to say that photography has changed is a stunning understatement. The instant gratification of a digital camera vs. film may be the biggest change. Here's a picture I took on the subway this morning, cropped a bit, but otherwise unmanipulated.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVptF7llgvveSGLobPnTdlmW_0EgV4Ggptt031OxWy21FicXVeYG-pKVVqjbBhjWziS0ws_g_SZeuNgOkT3WZpKJJzd8EWn0Sz7jqWBa_tti7PpXL1WGJlmhFF4iSBLiZVEyMbbw/s1600/2012+09+18+-+6+train.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVptF7llgvveSGLobPnTdlmW_0EgV4Ggptt031OxWy21FicXVeYG-pKVVqjbBhjWziS0ws_g_SZeuNgOkT3WZpKJJzd8EWn0Sz7jqWBa_tti7PpXL1WGJlmhFF4iSBLiZVEyMbbw/s320/2012+09+18+-+6+train.png" width="190" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lexington Avenue line, Wednesday morning</td></tr>
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Some of the pictures don't look that sharp, but if they are good enough for a blog post, I'll be satisfied.Addisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01049845782759507926noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17858239.post-66978594620001970012011-12-23T08:15:00.000-08:002011-12-23T08:29:49.496-08:00<div style="text-align: center;"><b>Everyday I Have the Blues #22</b></div><div style="text-align: center;">Year-end Roundup, Part I</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span">I’ve neglected this blog for most of this year, but that doesn</span>’<span class="Apple-style-span">t mean I wasn</span>’<span class="Apple-style-span">t collecting notable examples of everyday English usage. I was, and it</span>’<span class="Apple-style-span">s time to clear out the cache in time for the end of the year.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span">First up is an interesting smartphone app, Everyday. You take a photo of your face once a day or so, and the app turns them into a movie. Hew to the schedule long enough and you can bring an entirely new dimension to your masochism. I think the name is a sort of joke, but I</span>’<span class="Apple-style-span">m not sure.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilYhkuYz7pe6ebdk2jxvObKVgmfCwjH4iVgiv_2nGKiiOx8EEUBU-KLqooqhA4NI0fHMNPCevncJVGmQlbNmLCWvZAeeCQMbQL7TZPdodulM93YOGYktTm8lc64V4ddPKCYfws_g/s1600/Everyday%252C+a+Photo+App+That+Watches+You+Get+Old.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilYhkuYz7pe6ebdk2jxvObKVgmfCwjH4iVgiv_2nGKiiOx8EEUBU-KLqooqhA4NI0fHMNPCevncJVGmQlbNmLCWvZAeeCQMbQL7TZPdodulM93YOGYktTm8lc64V4ddPKCYfws_g/s320/Everyday%252C+a+Photo+App+That+Watches+You+Get+Old.jpg" width="167" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Reuters covers so many fascinating subjects that their copy editors sometimes find themselves challenged, or so I imagine. Take this story about<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/20/us-polo-idUSTRE73J00O20110420" target="_blank"> beach polo in Miami by Simon Evans.</a> I called it </span>“<span class="Apple-style-span">Keeping the P in WASP</span>”<span class="Apple-style-span"> because down in the fifth paragraph, Evans describes the typical polo tournament as having </span>“<span class="Apple-style-span">a gentile tone.</span>”<span class="Apple-style-span"> Mr. Evans wins the 2011 Close But No Cigar Award for that interesting use of the word. Follow the link to read my snarky comment and learn more about the gentile tone of polo in America.</span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQI5YI3O9_LvW7P2i1BPQ9NgeP9bFSAlTpEcqG9IT9sTc8oNYmoS-O0IYrvTzJUJl9FRa9ltRF9oae1eJV0DW3DTA0rzn_HoC2-FfzbtKTIwf-QqDZ0g4j66_6tC7W7HthxlIr2A/s1600/Keeping+the+P+in+WASP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQI5YI3O9_LvW7P2i1BPQ9NgeP9bFSAlTpEcqG9IT9sTc8oNYmoS-O0IYrvTzJUJl9FRa9ltRF9oae1eJV0DW3DTA0rzn_HoC2-FfzbtKTIwf-QqDZ0g4j66_6tC7W7HthxlIr2A/s320/Keeping+the+P+in+WASP.jpg" width="208" /></a></div><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span">The New York Public Library</span>’<span class="Apple-style-span">s Library Lions gala is noted as one of the high points of the season. For that reason, as well as the association of the library with good writing, you might think that someone would have given the announcement more than a cursory read, but apparently that wasn</span>’<span class="Apple-style-span">t the case. Nor did the writer notice the red line under “playwrite.” </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeoKRg4wr9APymhpB4MzHpy1grr_-3VuYp0HNiKC1e23j2hIc5YYoa4dyaab6U37_OBjAM-PjOdVnXBI36dfvK46kCsxcxKO-Rm-EsXrTaJ3V-EiofVp3-aoy39Pl0IdgyzbBkFA/s1600/Library+Lions+benefit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeoKRg4wr9APymhpB4MzHpy1grr_-3VuYp0HNiKC1e23j2hIc5YYoa4dyaab6U37_OBjAM-PjOdVnXBI36dfvK46kCsxcxKO-Rm-EsXrTaJ3V-EiofVp3-aoy39Pl0IdgyzbBkFA/s320/Library+Lions+benefit.jpg" width="262" /></a></div>This is an oldie but goodie, and since it involves John Boehner it deserves the widest possible exposure. I think this goes back to 2009.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj99nha4rqlOowy6kZcBUmCSlbC-0QUnFx_Pu29kPLD1W_HoZbtuHI37aX-IjuZ2lFQJy9KQbJf6xf1y2VIkMAnNfN0Yi-cZGdI8xE_nXggDIzgOaLiinXwi6bdGJiq-y6utOCy0Q/s1600/Incumbent+for+us.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj99nha4rqlOowy6kZcBUmCSlbC-0QUnFx_Pu29kPLD1W_HoZbtuHI37aX-IjuZ2lFQJy9KQbJf6xf1y2VIkMAnNfN0Yi-cZGdI8xE_nXggDIzgOaLiinXwi6bdGJiq-y6utOCy0Q/s320/Incumbent+for+us.jpg" width="245" /></a></div><br />
<i><a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/" target="_blank">International Business Times</a></i> may still be looking for copy editors, both fast and knowledgeable. Or maybe just fast. I’m beginning to think that people don’t know what it means when a red line appears under a word they’ve just typed.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRMm9bUJR6u3QSwjRXy6pwiOqA_M0_mOmSUKRZ5PEUHYc7GQqDJVmGTJo1zfbTYi6TcdodTlf4snZnMcnxkfRms-U0ScAScpj_T5uIq2lmGWWl5M9-Z8hArVnDBZYgJ_A50jBykw/s1600/Knowlagable+copy+editor++2011+06+08.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRMm9bUJR6u3QSwjRXy6pwiOqA_M0_mOmSUKRZ5PEUHYc7GQqDJVmGTJo1zfbTYi6TcdodTlf4snZnMcnxkfRms-U0ScAScpj_T5uIq2lmGWWl5M9-Z8hArVnDBZYgJ_A50jBykw/s320/Knowlagable+copy+editor++2011+06+08.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Nokia is a Finnish company, but surely its ad agency has some native English speakers on staff. On second thought, maybe that was the problem.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitozS8rVkd1jJohPEQMEnmoxM0JTz45jeOHuSsgrZ-xJXRYItf0_XZY631dDVuo4C7ju6iXOd2lJm_KrOF6-qv9FLkIwQ-VO87Dgbt84Edi78dczEoHl54YEeFohxdOP6HY20Svw/s1600/Nokia%2527s+Amazing+Everyday+-+something.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="153" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitozS8rVkd1jJohPEQMEnmoxM0JTz45jeOHuSsgrZ-xJXRYItf0_XZY631dDVuo4C7ju6iXOd2lJm_KrOF6-qv9FLkIwQ-VO87Dgbt84Edi78dczEoHl54YEeFohxdOP6HY20Svw/s320/Nokia%2527s+Amazing+Everyday+-+something.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
I'm still trying to figure out what was in the writer’s mind when he or she wrote this. What rule decrees that “being ordered around by crew members” is incorrect?<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrrzrLif3WWk8r8ccp9hsfszDGADbZJAiCfOgJSzMnMoPVxZ24Hej86eEK706QDPy4t_dJ2X5IcFFGan2EWs1t9W3lEpOqizuNvNvC1telHG0PVvgFouECTrR7eEU0t-TWjO570w/s1600/NY+Times+-+Being+ordered+by+crew+members+-+2011+12+13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrrzrLif3WWk8r8ccp9hsfszDGADbZJAiCfOgJSzMnMoPVxZ24Hej86eEK706QDPy4t_dJ2X5IcFFGan2EWs1t9W3lEpOqizuNvNvC1telHG0PVvgFouECTrR7eEU0t-TWjO570w/s1600/NY+Times+-+Being+ordered+by+crew+members+-+2011+12+13.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">I hope you enjoyed these examples of mangled English and come back next week for more from the archives.</div>Addisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01049845782759507926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17858239.post-75808790817402526242011-12-23T07:21:00.000-08:002011-12-23T08:26:31.258-08:00<div style="text-align: center;"><b>Everyday I Have the Blues #21</b></div><div style="text-align: center;">I Can Has Smartphones?</div><br />
This deck on the home page of the <i><a href="http://online.wsj.com/" target="_blank">Wall Street Journal</a></i> made me LOL this morning. Maybe I should cut the editor some slack — it’s hard to remember whether the subject of the sentence was singular or plural at 11 p.m. — but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t preserve it forever here.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh61VWIYckiIW1srGgaS5itzLxV5zAP1yrMXcSBF2yfisAebxUXWw69QwxiGRdSp8AwqjTCuKy33EQYvf1okrpEqlRzvVOpwpK91zw7Enap2CwSaTPbWS-2uuMxePqLw9jWqSApWg/s1600/I+Can+Has+Smartphones.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh61VWIYckiIW1srGgaS5itzLxV5zAP1yrMXcSBF2yfisAebxUXWw69QwxiGRdSp8AwqjTCuKy33EQYvf1okrpEqlRzvVOpwpK91zw7Enap2CwSaTPbWS-2uuMxePqLw9jWqSApWg/s320/I+Can+Has+Smartphones.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Addisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01049845782759507926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17858239.post-15932907467103660472011-01-08T09:30:00.000-08:002011-08-22T18:01:55.625-07:00<b>Everyday I Have the Blues #20</b><br />
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Rather than pin the blame on one of the reporters, let’s award this one (second paragraph, second line) to the Reuters copyeditor. Way to go, CE!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJkOTVB2-KoG69D3sjGG5D_kLFGjoc8azfipYOyzbHqc_er8nwg1EIJNiyAE2QVZtggdKbKSegpScvjx3S5i_vnQhIxzYNpLfaMFro_O6o9pPJ-p_HyYQotJ7oSZJ_wOxAY0gLNQ/s1600/Me+and+yobo+-+exercising+everyday.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJkOTVB2-KoG69D3sjGG5D_kLFGjoc8azfipYOyzbHqc_er8nwg1EIJNiyAE2QVZtggdKbKSegpScvjx3S5i_vnQhIxzYNpLfaMFro_O6o9pPJ-p_HyYQotJ7oSZJ_wOxAY0gLNQ/s320/Me+and+yobo+-+exercising+everyday.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Addisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01049845782759507926noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17858239.post-48937549651946945482010-04-11T19:26:00.001-07:002010-04-13T10:55:42.883-07:00<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Everyday I Have the Blues #19</span></div><div style="text-align: center;">Don’t blame the writer.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><b><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5459075409812471570" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh25mvLX0zdUYE5KtKSV2J95UUMMTgOIeQXteJPZt_hHUc-c-rwU-SYN8pGHkhXH_5YYfJrXk40A_PgvSQkp1Z7QVALEaODqvQmSmvV6ZOoe4ICaLWuB4rjfyaxCYvkMitJbf3z6g/s200/Investors+hone+in.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 22px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 200px;" /></b></span></span></div><div>Headlines are seldom dreamed up by the reporter, so I won’t even mention the writer’s name on <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Investors-hone-in-on-profits-apf-3804306783.html?x=0" target="_blank">this piece</a> from the Associated Press that was featured on Yahoo! tonight. For an explanation of the egregious mistake (because it’s in a headline and may be the only part of the story millions of people see), see <b>Everyday I Have the Blues #17. </b></div>Addisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01049845782759507926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17858239.post-22493629320974201432010-04-01T12:19:00.000-07:002011-01-08T09:35:13.963-08:00<b>Everyday I Have the Blues #18</b><br />
<br />
We have another copy editor free zone: AOL’s DailyFinance. In evidence, I submit the lede paragraph from <a href="http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/media/hamsters-that-sell-kia-soul-commercial-wins-auto-ad-of-the-year/19422119/" target="_blank">Willow Duttge’s story today about the Kia</a>:<br />
<blockquote>Hamsters That Sell: Kia’s Soul Commercial Wins Auto Ad of the Year</blockquote><blockquote><div id="articleHeader"><span class="byline">By <a href="http://www.dailyfinance.com/writers/willow-duttge/" target="_blank">WILLOW DUTTGE</a></span> <span class="posted">Posted 3:00 PM 04/01/10</span> <span class="categories"> <a href="http://www.dailyfinance.com/category/media/" rel="tag" target="_blank">Media</a></span> </div><div class="rightTxt" id="articleToolsTop"><span class="left" id="cmtCount"></span><span class="textSize"><a class="lrgTxt" href="javascript:textSize(150);"><br />
</a></span> </div><div class="postBody" id="articleBody">Evidently, hamsters are good for sales, or at least for getting viewers to remember your product. The Kia Motors (<a href="http://www.dailyfinance.com/quotes/kia-motors-corp-ord/kimtf/nao" target="_blank">KIMTF</a>) <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8eKU3CP_m8&feature=player_embedded" target="_blank">ad for it's Soul wagon</a> created by ad agency <a href="http://www.dng.com/" target="_blank">David&Goliath</a>, features dozens of them. The streets of a generic city are littered with hamsters that are stuck spinning on their creaky hamster wheels while hip hamsters zoom past in their bright red Soul. The ad was so effective in grabbing viewer's attentions that it was awarded Automotive Ad of the Year from the <a href="http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/consumer/kia-rolls-home-with-nielsen%E2%80%99s-top-auto-ad-award/" target="_blank">Nielsen Automotive Advertising Awards</a> on Wednesday. </div></blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><div class="postBody" id="articleBody"></div></blockquote><div class="postBody" id="articleBody"></div>See full article from DailyFinance: <a href="http://srph.it/9hOvbi" target="_blank">http://srph.it/9hOvbi</a></blockquote>Willow is a seasoned journalist and a graduate of Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism (you can find out all about her <a href="http://www.willowduttge.com/" target="_blank">here</a>), but since she can’t rely on copy editor <a href="http://www.dailyfinance.com/about/3/" target="_blank'">Matthew Schwartz</a> or any of the other veterans listed with him on the DailyFinance site to correct her writing, she needs to learn the difference between “its” and “it’s” (one is a possessive—do <span style="font-style: italic;">you</span> know which one it is?). She also should spend some time studying the concept of agreement: hip hamsters zoom past in their bright red Soul. Just the one? Without seeing the ad, I would guess that we see more than one Soul, no matter how many hamsters are in it. [<span style="font-weight: bold;">NOTE:</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> Skip the study. My assumption was wrong. There is only one hip hamster group (a family?) in one car in the ad. Still, it would have been clearer to say “while three hip hamsters zoom past in a bright red Soul.”</span>]<br />
<br />
Also, “grabbing viewer’s attentions” is completely confused. If there is more than one viewer, it’s “viewers’ ” but the convention is to refer to <span style="font-style: italic;">the</span> viewer, which may be what she was thinking of at first but when she tried to bring in multiple viewers she couldn’t figure out how to construct the possessive, and then the whole thing just broke down.<br />
<br />
And one last thing in this paragraph. The ad was awarded Automotive Ad of the Year <span style="font-style: italic;">at</span> the Nielsen Automotive Advertising Awards, not from. Never from. Possibly by, but not from.<br />
<br />
In the next paragraph we find “startting” for “starring.” It’s hard to understand how such a glaring mistake could have gotten past even a quick read through, but that’s a simple spelling goof. As I’ve said before, Spellcheck is your friend. There’s more, but I’ve had enough.<br />
<br />
In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that I applied for a job with AOL last year but was not hired. They thought they could get along without me and they may be right, though this story certainly indicates otherwise. I am <span style="font-style: italic;">not</span> bitter. I am simply a disinterested copy editor, offering guidance to the many writers who struggle to write coherently, out there in the vast reaches of the Internet.<br />
<br />
UPDATE: As of May 17th, all of the egregious errors cited above have been corrected, which proves that someone is reading this blog. No need to thank me, guys, it’s all in a day’s work. But DailyFinance could still use a copy editor. Reading the rest of the story, I see that in the next-to-last paragraph the second sentence is inexplicably uncapitalized:<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">But how did the commercial do in the category that really counts: selling cars? for 2009, Kia's sales were close to 10% higher, a bump the company partly attributed to sales of the Soul.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><div id="tempSelBlock" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: black; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><br />
</div><div id="tempSelBlock" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: black; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Since journalists don</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">’t get to claim a dispensation under the poetic license, the quote above consists of two sentences, the second starting after the question mark and therefore requiring a capital F. So go fix it. We<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;">’</span>ll discuss whether audiences can be “impacted” (fourth paragraph) another time.</span></div></span>Addisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01049845782759507926noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17858239.post-72704328732813204922010-03-30T11:38:00.000-07:002010-03-31T12:55:08.835-07:00<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">A first response to Jeff Jarvis’</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="font-weight: bold;">column in</span> </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">The Guardian<br /></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><br />Jeff Jarvis got all up in Rupert Murdoch’s face over Murdoch’s plan to start charging for access to <span style="font-style: italic;">The Times </span>(London). <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/26/rupert-murdoch-pathetic-paywall" target="_blank">The column</a> ran in <span style="font-style: italic;">The Guardian, </span>which a commenter pointed out is losing millions of pounds each month. It is well worth reading, and before more time passes I want to post some of my thoughts on what Jarvis said about the future of newspapers, free versus paid content on the Internet, and low-cost news businesses.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul><li>Why so emotional, Jeff? Rupert Murdoch instituting a paywall isn’t intended as a personal affront to you. It’s just business.</li><li>If something can’t go on the way it has, it won’t. There is no reason why there won’t be a second bursting of an Internet bubble, though this won’t return the genie to the bottle or restore newspapers and magazines to financial health. But it’s unreasonable to expect publishers (or anyone) to go on losing money year after year if profitability isn’t imminent.</li><li>Real journalism (sourced, fact checked) isn’t for amateurs. That doesn’t mean they can’t do it but that doing it consistently and well, and maintaining a site of some kind, is not going to be common. (See Dr. Johnson quote in the right column.) Some people keep on with their hobby, a very few make money at it, many give it up. Opinion is easy; news stories take time.</li><li>If journalism can’t pay more than twice the minimum wage, why should anyone with intelligence and ability go into the field?</li><li>What’s my personal bias in this? I don’t want to read a full newspaper or magazine on a computer monitor, e-book reader, or iPad. I don’t want to spend that much time tethered to the screen when I’m not at work. I would be willing to pay for an online subscription to <span style="font-style: italic;">The New York Times,</span> but if I could afford it I’d prefer to buy it each day and read it on my way to and from work. I won’t subscribe to all the papers whose Web sites I look at now—very occasionally, to be sure. I almost never watch network TV news (<span style="font-style: italic;">PBS News Hour</span> aside, usually on Friday for Shields and Brooks, and <span style="font-style: italic;">Washington Week</span>—maybe I <span style="font-style: italic;">should</span> have majored in poli sci) so I’m definitely in a minority here.</li></ul><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span></div></div>Addisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01049845782759507926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17858239.post-23016522721590142392010-03-29T14:03:00.000-07:002010-04-13T10:54:41.448-07:00<span style="font-weight: bold;">Everyday I Have the Blues #17</span><br />
<div>Before too much more time passes I would like to welcome <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilton_Als" target="_blank">Hilton Als</a> and <i>The New Yorker</i> copyediting team to the Hall of Embarrassing Usage with this example from the February 15/22, 2010, issue.</div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj71btsEpP23N0soeZXrnoKmRwJBoQ8P-rfik1bPQ-8I_vAy319RXgDNVIggKyMLx_A6SC39d_YxAHgrVERwTb8Vy19717P7W8d6nRAsKp0VbeDQ6q2brm2ahCW_rs7GXhuJBc0dg/s1600/Als+-+New+Yorker+-+hone+in+on.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454178001018838978" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj71btsEpP23N0soeZXrnoKmRwJBoQ8P-rfik1bPQ-8I_vAy319RXgDNVIggKyMLx_A6SC39d_YxAHgrVERwTb8Vy19717P7W8d6nRAsKp0VbeDQ6q2brm2ahCW_rs7GXhuJBc0dg/s200/Als+-+New+Yorker+-+hone+in+on.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 200px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 98px;" /></a><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">When the camera hones in on Linney’s heart-shaped face...</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div>I confess that I had to look up ‟home in on” and ‟hone” in the dictionary before I could be sure that I wasn’t the one who was confused. After all, I’m just a freelance copy editor. <i>The New Yorker</i> is — or used to be — one of the best edited magazines in the country. As this example shows, ‟used to be” is more like it.</div>Addisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01049845782759507926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17858239.post-61841321522261943622010-03-29T12:52:00.000-07:002010-03-29T14:02:05.575-07:00<b>Horton Foote and David Mamet in Conversation, part II</b><p><b></b></p><p><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Here is another page of my notes on the program Horton Foote and David Mamet gave at the 92nd Street Y in 1986, the first part of which is <a href="http://meandyobo.blogspot.com/2009/12/horton-foote-and-david-mamet-in.html">here</a>. I will post additional material if I find more pages.</span></b></p><b></b><p>Mamet: [In Hollywood] if someone gets shot in Act III, they don’t see why they can’t get shot in Acts I and II also.</p><p>Mamet: More and more, the kind of movie I like is a silent movie.</p><div>Mamet: Wait a second—you’re writing about human beings and I’m writing about Chicago?<br />Foote: I mean, human beings <i>in</i> Chicago.</div><p>Mamet: ...wishing they hadn’t sent the limo because you know you’re going to pay for it at the story conference.</p><p>Mamet: They always invite me to come on the set... they never mean it. Sure, I’d love to stand on the corner for three hours feeling like a damn fool while they massacre my screenplay.</p><p>Mamet: It’s like the mother of Moses—you just watch your baby go [when you sell the copyright].</p><p>Mamet: All you can put on the screen is the narrative line or what Aristotle called the ‟structure of the incidents.”</p><div>Foote: Couldn’t your work [<i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090583/" target="_blank">About Last Night</a>, </i>based on <i>Sexual Perversity in Chicago</i>] have been done correctly?<br />Mamet: Yes, but it was done by venal and unpleasant people.</div><br /><div>Foote: I wanted to be an actor in the worst way.<br />Mamet: I did too. I <i>was</i> an actor in the worst way.</div>Addisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01049845782759507926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17858239.post-68673605029460482762010-02-27T20:11:00.000-08:002010-04-13T10:54:13.878-07:00<b>Everyday I Have the Blues #16</b><br />
<div><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.venturebeat.com/" target="blank">VentureBeat</a> is a Copyeditor-Free Zone.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: garamond,'new york',times,serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"></span></span></span><br />
<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: garamond,'new york',times,serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">Keeping the experience inside the social network makes the user inclined to stay their longer or even share it with friends.</span></span></span></blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: garamond,'new york',times,serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">Kim-Mai Cutler, author of the above blunder, must belong to the generation that doesn’t see any difference between “there,” “their,” and “they’re.” The sentence quoted above comes from <a href="http://digital.venturebeat.com/2010/02/26/facebook-point-guard/" target="blank">‟Marketers: ‘Twitter Is Your Small Forward, Facebook Is the Point Guard,’ </a>” a story carried by <i><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/external/venturebeat/2010/02/26/26venturebeat-marketers-twitter-is-your-small-forward-face-65027.html" target="blank">The New York Times’ <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"></span> </a></i>Technology section,which isn’t responsible for the error. They have enough of their own to worry about (note correct use of “their”).</span></span></span></div>Addisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01049845782759507926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17858239.post-26013473017261341672010-02-09T18:39:00.000-08:002011-01-08T09:33:22.346-08:00<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Everyday I Have the Blues #15</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />
<br />
Blues on the Subway<br />
<br />
The </span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span">New York Daily News</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"> is welcomed to the blog with this story by Pete Donohoe, a staff writer, about a 3-D presentation available to a relative handful of subway riders: </span><a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/02/09/2010-02-09_ageing_subway_goes_3d_as_straphangers_with_special_glasses_catch_special_olympic.html" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span">Ageing subway goes 3-D</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span">. Go down to the seventh paragraph and you will find this quote from a passerby: </span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"></span></span><br />
<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman', Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Still, as Fleurante pointed out, “You don’t see stuff like this everyday in the subway. Only in New York, right?”</span></span></blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span">Wrong, Pete! You don’t see stuff like that </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span">every day.</span></i>Addisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01049845782759507926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17858239.post-44173646653337364362009-12-28T06:26:00.000-08:002011-01-08T09:33:09.612-08:00<span style="font-weight: bold;">Everyday I Have the Blues #14</span><br />
What is AP style on “everyday”? Here's a paragraph from a story on PIMCO᾿s CEO, Mohamed El-Erian, by Bernard Condon, an AP business writer, that ran on December 27th :<br />
<br />
<blockquote>El-Erian says he learned to be open to many different views on the world (and markets) from his father, an Egyptian diplomat who insisted on reading several newspapers everyday, both on the right and the left. El-Erian had hoped to become a college professor. But when his father died, he took a job at the International Monetary Fund to support the family. He rose through the ranks, eventually becoming deputy director.</blockquote>Read the whole article <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Stocks-higher-Famed-investor-apf-3376212915.html?x=0" target="blank"">here</a>.Addisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01049845782759507926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17858239.post-15598042191212770872009-12-17T18:23:00.000-08:002014-12-22T18:26:32.816-08:00<b>Horton Foote and David Mamet in Conversation</b><br />
<div>
When I moved to New York in 1980 I went a little bit wild. Yes, I did, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. After years of relative deprivation in Denver, I subscribed to concert series like they were going out of style, joined Manhattan Theater Club <i>and</i> the Public Theatre, and even became a member of the 92nd Street’s Poetry Center. Those were the days, my friend! I heard Eudora Welty, Eugene Ionesco, Bill Murray perform in a Yeats play, Robert Merrill, Salman Rushdie, and so on.<br />
And there, on October 6, 1986, introduced by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindsay_Crouse" target="_blank">Lindsay Crouse</a>, <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horton_Foote" target="_blank">Horton Foote</a></b> met <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Mamet" target="_blank">David Mamet</a></b> for a conversation on writing for the theater and the movies. I took notes, either to share with a friend who couldn’t be there or for my own amusement. When Horton Foote died earlier this year, I looked for the notes but couldn’t find them. It would have made a nice commemorative post, I thought. Since then, one page of the notes turned up and even though there’s more Mamet that Foote in my notes, I’m going to share them in Foote’s memory.<br />
Mamet: Their idea of the craft of screenwriting jingles when you put it in your pocket.<br />
Foote: Nobody is writing plays, stories, or poems much — they’re all writing screenplays. I quickly try to discourage them from that.<br />
Foote: I was an actor and I started from the most terrible reason: I wrote myself a part.<br />
Mamet: Why should one go back to that other hell-on-earth unless one’s wife needs a new kitchen?<br />
Mamet: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy" target="_blank">Tolstoy</a>, I kind of think, was a Russian <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreiser" target="_blank">Dreiser</a>.<br />
Mamet: I just kind of write down what people say to each other. That’s where I think the theater differs from the movies.<br />
Mamet: <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027532/" target="_blank">Dodsworth</a></i> was one of the greatest American movies ever made.<br />
Mamet: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanford_Meisner" target="_blank">Sandy Meisner</a> told me I’d starve in the gutter if I became an actor. And well I would have, if any gutter would have had me.</div>
Addisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01049845782759507926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17858239.post-80001086655811046362009-08-27T06:34:00.000-07:002010-04-06T10:35:39.712-07:00<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Star-Pupil Syndrome</span><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">One of the things I</span><span style="font-size:100%;">’</span><span style="font-size:100%;">ve done this summer is catch up on my reading, specifically the books that have been sitting around, waiting for time to read them. Some have been in boxes, packed away more years ago than I care to say. A few were sitting on the bookshelf and now that I have to make room I have finally taken them down and worked my way through them. I finished <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Art-Lover-Novel-Directions-Classics/dp/0811216292/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251392934&sr=1-2" target="'blank'"><span style="font-style: italic;">The Art Lover</span></a> by Carole Masi, which was quite a slog, and Larry McMurtry</span><span style="font-size:100%;">’</span><span style="font-size:100%;">s </span><span style="font-size:100%;"><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Film-Flam-Hollywood-Larry-McMurtry/dp/0743216245/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251392740&sr=1-1" target="'blank'">Film-Flam: Essays on Hollywood</a>, </i>which was also a slog, to my surprise. There was entirely too much of McMurtry decrying the state of Hollywood and drawing conclusions on the state of America</span><span style="font-size:100%;">’</span><span style="font-size:100%;">s youth from the behavior of characters in movies. There wasn</span><span style="font-size:100%;">’</span><span style="font-size:100%;">t a whole lot of oomph in the writing, as if he decided too late that he wasn</span><span style="font-size:100%;">’</span><span style="font-size:100%;">t all that interested in writing the columns for <span style="font-style: italic;">American Film</span> but a promise is a promise. I realized, when I was almost done with it, that it would have gone down more easily if I’d read it with a Texas accent.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:georgia;">Still, I</span><span style="font-family:georgia;">’</span><span style="font-family:georgia;">m a persistent cuss and I finished it, and so I came to the paragraphs I</span><span style="font-family:georgia;">’</span><span style="font-family:georgia;">ve excerpted here. There was a shock of recognition as I read about the Star-Pupil Syndrome and saw myself in it. I wanted to defend myself to McMurtry, even as I saw that he was absolutely right. I wanted to add that rather than conferring respectability, in some circles **cough** <a href="http://parterre.com/" target="'blank'">Parterre Box</a> **cough** status depends on having seen, heard, and read everything. More and more I realize that is impossible, an insight that now seems obvious but that I appear to have ignored for most of my life, as I made lists of records to buy and books to read. And so for your delectation and edification, here</span><span style="font-family:georgia;">’</span><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">s Larry McMurtry.</span></span><br /></span></p><p></p><blockquote>My problem with great founts, apparently, is that the water which flows from them is sometimes so satisfying that having drunk deeply once, I feel no urge to drink again. I knew fourteen years ago, walking out of <span style="font-style: italic;">The Naked Night,</span> that it would be a long time before I really needed to see another Ingmar Bergman film. I was simply filled by that film, where its author is concerned. I went on and checked out <span style="font-style: italic;">Wild Strawberries</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">The Seventh Seal</span> and several others, and I admired a few lyric moments and few great austere images, but I had stopped being hungry for Bergman and they meant little to me. I felt the same way about Truffaut, after seeing <span style="font-style: italic;">Jules et Jim.<br /><br /></span>This is not, I should say, an attempt to propose a one-man, one-masterpiece theory. Artists are welcome to as many masterpieces as they can pull off, and a great artist might manage to pull off several. My point is that one’s need for masterpieces is not simple or uniform—one is not obliged to confront them every time one has the opportunity. For most of us, the opportunity comes too often; so much magisterial art is not easy to incorporate into one’s life.<br /><br />The belief that one is obliged to read all the books of every author, hear all the music of every great composer, and see all the films of every great director is surely a kind of neurosis, and a neurosis whose origin can usually be traced to one’s university career. A compulsion toward over-informedness is most apt to occur in individuals who have been arrested at a graduate school level of development; it is an intellectual infirmity, rather than a sign of health, and is so common now that it perhaps deserves to be elevated to the status of a syndrome: the Star-Pupil Syndrome. If the desire to shine as a pupil is sustained too long it can cause even the most committed worker to work badly.</blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;">[I omit a digression on Joyce Carol Oates. Addison]</span><br /><blockquote>The weight of the academic experience is such, for most of us, that it sometimes takes about ten years to realize that we have, after all, graduated. There comes a time when one no longer has teachers to please; thus it is not really necessary to read everything, see everything, and hear everything in order to remain respectable. One eventually begins to notice that the cellars of all the arts are filled with the over-informed, and finally one is forced to admit that there is just too much art—far more, at least, than I can use, either as a writer or as a person. With that recognition the nature of the search changes, and instead of trying, perhaps unconsciously, to please one’s teachers one begins to seek out sources of response for oneself—people and books and films that one can hearken to, and perhaps be heartened by.<br /><br />One of the reasons, I imagine, why I continue to go to silly films rather than serious films is that the vast majority of serious films, like the vast majority of serious books, are mediocre, and nothing can be more disheartening than mediocre, realistic art.</blockquote>Movie-Tripping: My Own Rotten Film Festival (originally published in <span style="font-style: italic;">New York</span> magazine)<br />from <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Film-Flam-Hollywood-Larry-McMurtry/dp/0743216245/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261148618&sr=1-1">Film-Flam: Essays on Hollywood</a> </span>(1986) by Larry McMurtry.Addisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01049845782759507926noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17858239.post-68977273282758288212008-12-28T15:04:00.000-08:002010-04-13T10:52:06.319-07:00<b><style="font-size:normal;">Everyday I Have the Blues #13 </style="font-size:normal;"></b><br />
<div><b></b>CompuServe remains a source of surprising copy. I call this one <span style="font-family: "; font-size: 11;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">“</span></span>It’s A Hell of a Wine.<span style="font-family: "; font-size: 11;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">”</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUo43za_f12fdtScfeCWhAIz81h1LTgvtvZu70zl3w1dnKp-_orvLhCO3L6ncavNVjbpeK3JNhT5vgZHt642Q5eSpIVEy_xtuP5fkEFJXRx4ndSpczxR55WGuhrpDylAUzWFWAJw/s1600-h/Zinfidel.bmp" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5284994640938887554" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUo43za_f12fdtScfeCWhAIz81h1LTgvtvZu70zl3w1dnKp-_orvLhCO3L6ncavNVjbpeK3JNhT5vgZHt642Q5eSpIVEy_xtuP5fkEFJXRx4ndSpczxR55WGuhrpDylAUzWFWAJw/s200/Zinfidel.bmp" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 120px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 93px;" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div style="text-align: center;">Zin vs. Primitivo</div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">What happens when American Zinfidels<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">go head-to-head with Italian Primitivos?<br />
<br />
</div></div>Addisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01049845782759507926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17858239.post-67833507849778712262008-12-28T14:29:00.000-08:002010-04-13T10:51:47.519-07:00<span style="font-weight: bold;">Everyday I Have the Blues #12</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 100%;">Sara Elder had a good story in <span style="font-style: italic;">The Times</span> last month called “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/health/nutrition/13fitness.html?scp=1&sq=Learning%20How%20to%20Walk&st=cse" target="'blank'">Learning How to Walk (Chewing Gum Not Included)</a>,</span><span style="font-family: "; font-size: 100%;">”</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 100%;"> about retraining adults to walk in a non-stressful way. It was quite interesting but I’d say it illustrates the danger of cutting and pasting from your notes. I scanned the relevant part of the article and tried to highlight the passages that escaped the copy editor’s eye, but if the highlighting is hard to read here they are:<o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 100%;"><br />
<br />
</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 100%;">“Each part of the body has it’s own job, and everything is connected.”<o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 100%;"><br />
<br />
</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 100%;">“You can’t make your bones go in different direction than than they want to go in,” he said.<br />
<br />
said Ms Goldman, the editor of a marketing trade magazine.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5yiCrCddN5wdpMql15fXjNsQJ_9vGDM2C1a4xke0CmP2MMlRCcG2npMIZRaFkqgkFgW_6vNVCv7Zrop9aVV1QWstnmMU4oXoYQjb-9fNsFHqjwYyVDJAL8Zbe7qDTVyGB0Mt3dw/s1600-h/Learning+How+to+Walk+highlighted.bmp" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="font-family: georgia;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5284973544531682434" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5yiCrCddN5wdpMql15fXjNsQJ_9vGDM2C1a4xke0CmP2MMlRCcG2npMIZRaFkqgkFgW_6vNVCv7Zrop9aVV1QWstnmMU4oXoYQjb-9fNsFHqjwYyVDJAL8Zbe7qDTVyGB0Mt3dw/s200/Learning+How+to+Walk+highlighted.bmp" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 200px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 146px;" /></a></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 100%;">And darned if they aren</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 100%;">’</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 100%;">t all in the version of the story posted on the Web.<br />
<br />
NOTE: I checked the story on August 27, 2009, and </span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 100%;">“</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 100%;">than than</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 100%;">” had been corrected in the online version. The other mistakes were still there.</span>Addisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01049845782759507926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17858239.post-21445649965801353992008-10-02T14:27:00.000-07:002010-04-13T10:50:48.776-07:00<span style="font-weight: bold;">Everyday I Have the Blues #11</span><br />
<br />
AOL’s CompuServe features several stories on its home page each day. Here’s the headline and teaser for one from Thursday, October 2:<br />
<blockquote>The Secret of How to Barter<br />
Why pay $100 for something if you can get it for $75? Learn how to barter in 4 steps.</blockquote>Why indeed? And why barter when you can bargain?Addisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01049845782759507926noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17858239.post-44921118180712929202008-09-30T18:06:00.000-07:002010-04-13T10:50:08.193-07:00<span style="font-weight: bold;">Everyday I Have the Blues #10</span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeP2QHGwj-Jxgb7MyvqH2zXjEcqefwHuSaaOkeezp027w6HqJtlTlGVgQ7a8zPoxKukgZ4APX3aRxgVOJkflKhvPLmaa5Hvoj9bEq38Srm4lfqA7VLEWkAgFAiLvoOAceFzuL8PQ/s1600-h/NY+Times+-+09+08+-+Banking+Crisis+story.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5374652443359912066" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeP2QHGwj-Jxgb7MyvqH2zXjEcqefwHuSaaOkeezp027w6HqJtlTlGVgQ7a8zPoxKukgZ4APX3aRxgVOJkflKhvPLmaa5Hvoj9bEq38Srm4lfqA7VLEWkAgFAiLvoOAceFzuL8PQ/s200/NY+Times+-+09+08+-+Banking+Crisis+story.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 200px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 150px;" /></a>Monday, September 29, must have been an extraordinary day at <span style="font-style: italic;">The Times,</span> what with the bailout package collapsing and stock markets swooning. Just look at the lead story on the first page of Tuesday’s Business Day, “The Banking Crisis Trickles Up,” and let your eye travel down until it stops just above the fold. There you will see <span style="font-weight: bold;">HEAD W. SANDWICHKICKER TAG</span>, underneath which are two lines of what we call in the business Greeked type. Oops. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyE0JqQuItwvsI4RT3wlOs5xAjKrOaU2c2_91igKNdSQrrl65U49KtpJPV1PHgfWHzUkMfE1hm2xtXvLFtbw48xcs7XORLLILG7vNmfzd8v0CQUozi8E8DZBSz8aqIL9N4OmBMTQ/s1600-h/NY+Times+-+09+08+-+Head+w.+Sandwichkicker+tag.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5374652131896191026" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyE0JqQuItwvsI4RT3wlOs5xAjKrOaU2c2_91igKNdSQrrl65U49KtpJPV1PHgfWHzUkMfE1hm2xtXvLFtbw48xcs7XORLLILG7vNmfzd8v0CQUozi8E8DZBSz8aqIL9N4OmBMTQ/s200/NY+Times+-+09+08+-+Head+w.+Sandwichkicker+tag.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 58px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 200px;" /></a>Of all the things they hate in the newsroom, a big goof in a headline or caption is right up there at the top of the list. Maybe it was corrected in a later edition. I hope so.<br />
<br />
But that’s not what gave me the blues. It was a story in SportsTuesday about Charles “Chongo” Tucker, a rock climber who lived in Yosemite Park: “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/sports/othersports/30chongo.html?_r=1&oref=slogin" target="'blank">His Roof Is the Sky</a>” by Michael Brick. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I rarely read a sports story. It’s not a very Addison thing to do. This story piqued my interest, though, and I read it from beginning to end, stopping only to puzzle over two sentences.<br />
<br />
The first was this one, on the first page: “Rumors of his whereabouts began to trade around the big rocks and rope-walking fixtures of the Western states.” Huh? Rumors traded? “Hold on a doggone minute, Mr. Brick,” I said to myself. “Rumors are not independent actors, no matter how much you may want them to be, and they’re not traveling around the West on their own.” The sentence reads as if he wanted to construct it without any people, who would be the ones trading rumors as they climbed the rocks. Why he’d want to do that I haven’t a clue but it didn’t work for me.<br />
<br />
On the next page, Mr. Brick tries to strike another literary note in describing Chongo: “Leathery skin, knowing eyes and a dilettante’s smile gave him the cabalistic twinkle of a movie pirate.” Leaving aside the dilettante’s smile, which I still have trouble imagining, I was baffled by the cabalistic twinkle. If the second meaning of “cabala,” according to <span style="font-style: italic;">Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary,</span> is “a traditional, esoteric, occult, or secret matter,” then is a cabalistic twinkle “a way of looking at someone that implies possession of esoteric or occult knowledge,” a la Johnny Depp in <span style="font-style: italic;">Pirates of the Caribbean?</span> It could be but just what was twinkling? His whole face? Just his eyes? If they’re already knowing how are they radiating cabalistic knowledge at the same time?<br />
<br />
It’s a pity no one had the time to wrestle his meaning out of Mr. Brick when the story was being edited. Except for those two clunkers it’s a good story.Addisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01049845782759507926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17858239.post-43880876773273409492008-09-23T08:47:00.000-07:002010-04-13T10:49:20.830-07:00<span style="font-weight: bold;">Everyday I Have the Blues #9</span><br />
<br />
Last week, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Times </span>published an obituary of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/18/arts/music/18whitfield.html?ref=obituaries" target="'blank">Norman Whitfield,</a> the Motown Records songwriter and producer. As a dedicated follower of obits and a fan of Motown’s golden era, I read it with great interest until the last sentence in this paragraph stopped me cold.<br />
<blockquote>For all his renown as a composer, Mr. Whitfield was even more prominent as a producer and arranger. He was known especially for his work with the Temptations; he produced many of their recordings for Motown, including the album “Cloud Nine,” whose title track earned the group a Grammy in 1969. He also helped usher in the era of psychedelic soul, producing the work of artists like Edwin Starr and the Undisputed Truth.</blockquote>Look at the name of the second artist. If the group’s name is Undisputed Truth, then that is what it should be called. If the group called itself <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undisputed_Truth" target="'blank">The Undisputed Truth</a>, then “the” should be capitalized, the same way <span style="font-style: italic;">The New York Times</span> styles its own name. Sheesh.<br />
<br />
NOTE: And the same thing goes for The Temptations.Addisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01049845782759507926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17858239.post-69220740210488865342008-09-11T16:32:00.000-07:002010-04-13T10:48:33.867-07:00<span style="font-weight: bold;">Everyday I Have the Blues #8</span><br />
<br />
David Pogue had me awfully confused today. In his State of the Art column, “Nontechies, This One's For You,” he threw what looks like a comma splice into his review of the Peek.<br />
<blockquote>The power cord ends in a micro U.S.B. connector, alas, you can’t recharge the Peek from a computer, as you can with a BlackBerry or an iPod.</blockquote>I had to read that pesky sentence two or three times and I still don’t know why he didn’t either put a semicolon after “connector” or just split the darn thing into two sentences. If anyone can explain what he was doing there I’d love to hear it.<br />
“Nontechies, This One's For You,” by David Pogue. Page C1, <span style="font-style: italic;">The New York Times,</span> September 11, 2008.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">NOTE:</span> Read the comment for David Pogue’s response.Addisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01049845782759507926noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17858239.post-70570906998626195572008-08-21T13:43:00.000-07:002010-04-13T10:47:40.439-07:00<span style="font-weight: bold;">Everyday I Have the Blues #7</span><br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdmBjOb7GRmDL88xEky6HzeDaNJq9FnifA6VCk1A_PknMMt3FQBLbC8KngoRcv1Wk6sOdw9f8LqxM9Pzk6c_1HEYFP-RKHCU4c5N6wT-OEaeestJKm24kttuKck8OFMffWT754qg/s1600-h/119x119seagate.gif" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5237074891830220818" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdmBjOb7GRmDL88xEky6HzeDaNJq9FnifA6VCk1A_PknMMt3FQBLbC8KngoRcv1Wk6sOdw9f8LqxM9Pzk6c_1HEYFP-RKHCU4c5N6wT-OEaeestJKm24kttuKck8OFMffWT754qg/s200/119x119seagate.gif" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;" /></a>That little gem is from the NewEgg.com e-mail newsletter “Back to School All-Category Savings Spectacular! Up to 60% Off!” from August 19.Addisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01049845782759507926noreply@blogger.com0