Leading with the earthquake
Any of the rest of y'all notice this phenomenon when the Paper O'Record writes about your home states? Or does it reserve its cluelessness for the Vale of Humility 'Tween Two Mountains of Conceit? From Sunday's NYT Magazine:
Snow graduated from Davidson College in Charlotte, N.C., with a degree in philosophy in 1977.
To which the proper copydesk reply is: Are we leading with the earthquake? Davidson College is in "Davidson." It's no more "in Charlotte" than Sing Sing is in Manhattan. And you can look it up! Many editors do just that sort of thing, using tools like "almanacs" and "maps." (Some of HEADSUP-L's younger colleagues speak of a thing called the "Internet"; perhaps you have one of those in New York?)
Snow graduated from Davidson College in Charlotte, N.C., with a degree in philosophy in 1977.
To which the proper copydesk reply is: Are we leading with the earthquake? Davidson College is in "Davidson." It's no more "in Charlotte" than Sing Sing is in Manhattan. And you can look it up! Many editors do just that sort of thing, using tools like "almanacs" and "maps." (Some of HEADSUP-L's younger colleagues speak of a thing called the "Internet"; perhaps you have one of those in New York?)
posted by fev at 4:34 PM
2 Comments:
"Checking facts" got me in trouble recently. Every paper I've always worked at in Florida, plus the AP, always says the state prison is in Starke. I noticed we recently ran a correction that said it was in Raiford.
The answer? It's in both. *headdesk*
BTW, what does the phrase "leading with the earthquake" come from? Or is that from one of your class lectures?
Like so many fun classroom phenomena, "leading with the quake" started on some distant real-life desk (I'm thinking Wilmington, which means there may be witnesses).
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