(no subject)

[rivka]

This is the worst job of professional copyediting I have ever seen.

I understand spell-check errors. I can tolerate "silting" for "sitting," I guess, and I can rescue the meaning when "for" is substituted for "floor." I wince, but I see how it happens.

But then there are the errors that make the author look stupid. Please do not have a character adjust her "economically perfect desk chair," because you will jolt me right out of the story. And FOR THE LOVE OF GOD do not have a bunch of college-educated professionals who work with language for a living as newspaper reporters and columnists keep using the construction "suppose to."

Somewhere in the dimly-lit corners of Cornell University, a bust of William Strunk, Jr. has tears trickling down its dusty face.

Updated to add: ZOMG someone just ordered "trench fries."

Comments

[dornbeast.livejournal.com]

According to Wikipedia (here's your grain of salt), there were flamethrowers used in WWI, so it isn't an impossible phrase.

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

In this case, Wikipedia is correct. But the phrase still feels wrong to me. What did Americans call what they now call "French fries"? Until you have that, I don't think you can plausibly have the "trench fries" phrase.

But I am a little more familiar with the sorts of things British soldiers said, even though my Grandfather is supposed to have spent some time in the trenches with the Americans, passing on his experience.

It's a bit hard to reconcile the timing with when he was wounded and in hospital.