Comments for Rantings of a sub-editor

Comment on It’s in the headline! by substuff

substuff — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:06:19 +0000

Hehe! It’s as good a thing for them to get concerned about as any other, I guess. Beats parking and rubbish collection.

Comment on Public-sourced photos? Cum off it! by substuff

substuff — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:04:55 +0000

Oh my. Now that’s something special!

Comment on Public-sourced photos? Cum off it! by Dave B

Dave B — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:05:24 +0000

Thought you might appreciate this brilliantly censored ninth par from this match report from thisisbristol.co.uk

http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/time-Reading-1-Bristol-City-0/story-15062805-detail/story.html

Now if it had been a “cross cumshot” skidding inches beyond the far post, they might have had a point!

Comment on It’s in the headline! by Dave B

Dave B — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:57:07 +0000

A front-page subdeck on the Cheshunt & Waltham Mercury once reported “residents’ great pubic concern”. Lumme!

Comment on Public-sourced photos? Cum off it! by substuff

substuff — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 08:16:55 +0000

Haha, brilliant! “We may be working in sleaze, but there are STANDARDS.”

Comment on Public-sourced photos? Cum off it! by AussieSub

AussieSub — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:43:59 +0000

I subbed for a sleazy men’s mag some years ago where house style dictated we only use “cum” in the traditional this-cum-that sense and “come” for all other uses. They also had us writing “Web site” and “e-mail”. So annoying!

Comment on Learned/learnt and spelled/spelt by Olga

Olga — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 08:44:43 +0000

I was taught that -t is British and -ed American for those verbs, and as a young college student I made the mistake to mix both, as I was taught that either version was right. My, then, English teacher explained then that I shouldn’t mix both and use what ss appropriate for the audience. I live in England now and consider -ed to be incorrect for British English and try to avoid, when writing, mixing American and British.

Comment on It’s in the headline! by Iva

Iva — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:02:40 +0000

I have not laughed this much in a while. Thank you.

The second paragraph of my comment wej45′v4545 wqxwqxwwe fghfgh.

Comment on It’s in the headline! by Patrick Neylan (@AngrySubEditor)

Patrick Neylan (@AngrySubEditor) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:10:21 +0000

My former MD worked on the Buenos Aires Herald in the 60s. One day the front page featured the pope’s visit to Argentina while the back page led on Muhammad Ali. Of course, the pictures got transposed.

I once saw a copy of Lloyd’s List where the placeholder text appeared seven times on the front page.

In my editor days, I insisted the templates included *@%! in the placeholder copy. You’d have to be blind not to spot that. The exception was bylines, where the default name was Helen Highwater (it was a toss-up between that and Helena Hancart). I believe she’s still adding to her portfolio at that magazine.

Comment on It’s in the headline! by Jo Hawke

Jo Hawke — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:48:34 +0000

Having worked in radio before working in journalism, I applied a radio caution to my layout practices: Never curse in a room with a microphone. If you do, it will inevitably be on, and you will have inevitably forgotten to check.