Writer Ian Bogost has a clever proposal for a drinking establishment that every copy editor will love: “A bar called The Copy Desk where they offer an alternative to your drink order and you get kind of really upset for a second but then realize...
What do readers of The New Yorker complain about most when they write letters to the editor? Those two dots above vowels in words like cooperate and reelect. The diaeresis, as those marks are known, has remained in use at the magazine ever since the...
He’s a real trouper is the traditional spelling, with trouper from a theatrical troupe and the old stage ethic of the show must go on. Jean in Sharon, Pennsylvania, asks because she teaches theater and sees the competing trooper, which evokes...
Do you cringe when you hear the words orientate and disorientate? A copy editor in Waldoboro, Maine does. She’d rather hear “orient” and “disorient.” The hosts weigh in on that extra syllable. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
In this week’s episode, Martha and Grant discuss not-to-be-believed articles about language from the satirical newspaper The Onion, including one headlined “Underfunded Schools Forced to Cut Past Tense from Language Programs.” By the way, did you...