I, too, dislike it.

William thought there must be a long compound German word for the way that large events in the world could affect your personal life: the scale was reduced to the point of insignificance, but the everyday effect was amplified.

“

—	Maile Meloy: “The Proxy Marriage” : The New Yorker Yes. There should be compound German words for all occasions.

How We Share Content And Why - Adrants »

ANOTHER real byline. This is for real.

Hire me now, ok?

How Brands Can Meet Consumer Demand With Content - Adrants »

Look Ma, a real byline!

Copy writer and blogger for hire. Will accept press passes for payment if your shit is cool. Because of vanity.

Another tricky thing about e-records is finding them. It’s the intellectual equivalent of herding an army of imaginary cats, or the whole world suffering from early onset Alzheimer’s. Let’s take the example of everyone’s de facto e-records archive, the internet. We thought that the internet would be our Room of Requirement, but instead it’s turned out to be the Lestrange Vault at Gringott’s: while there is definitely precious treasure in there, it’s hidden under piles of shiny, worthless, ever-multiplying trinkets. The internet promised us unlimited room for storage, and, therefore, scope for discovery. But our brains don’t actually cope very well with infinity. How do we look for something in a pool whose limits we can’t even imagine?

“

—	Ask an Archivist \| The Hairpin Incredibly effective Harry Potter metaphor of the day!

Hello, Martians. This Is America - NYTimes.com »

I love Margaret Atwood. Don’t know if this article means I now don’t have to ready Moby Richard, or that I need to do a deep-dive to see how her metaphor holds up…

Painful copy I am not allowed to change

I forget that I am a persnickety writer until these things pop up and break my heart.

“An international country,” which is impossible by definition.
“Don some ironic lederhosen,” because apparently irony is an inherent quality of a cultural garment?
“Hospitable hosts,” as opposed to those hosts at tourist destinations who are passive aggressive because they do not want you there.
“A cosmopolitan mix of the First and Third Worlds,” which is insultingly outdated terminology and horribly dramatic to define London!
“Gypsy music.” This phrase is used twice. Really.

Reading this over again, maybe I am just being sensitive in some cases… but in a day and age where you can hire a copy writer on the internet for a pittance (hello!), why should writing like this ever see the light of day?

I’m a little upset with the idea that this is the future of poetry. I’d like for that to be more like poetry.

This is, however, a cool future for something entirely different.

Newly discovered portrait of Jane Austen: cool.

That doesn’t quite look like the miserable spinster some critics have led me to believe wrote all those horribly clever novels…

More generally, do the writing tutors of the world really think we should not report that a politician has been shot until we can specify the gunman? Do they honestly think it’s wrong to say that the lights are left on all night in an office building without supplying a list of the individuals who controlled the switches? We really have to get over this superstitious horror about passives. It’s gone beyond a joke.

“

—	Lingua Franca - The Chronicle of Higher Education The passive voice has been defended brilliantly!

Four Lessons from New York on Engaging Straight Supporters »

I know, I know, it’s uncouth for ghost-writers to reveal their work. So I guess I’ll stop talking now.

(Except to say that the inevitable typo of “virility” for “virality,” I word I wish my job did not force me to pretend existed, was inserted after my final edit. Bastards with their one-track minds.)