Author Topic: Copyedit 101  (Read 80408 times)

Tinka Cat

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Re: Copyedit 101
« Reply #75 on: November 17, 2009, 09:37:25 PM »
this could go on the Sports Thread, but I think it is better here.

The confounding world of athlete tattoos

highlight: "Quarless may be God's gift to football, but not to punctuation. It lacks an apostrophe, to say nothing of humility."


excellent!  thanks!
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mshray

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Re: Copyedit 101
« Reply #76 on: November 19, 2009, 09:57:38 AM »
So on the same day that I got a nicely comprehensive email from Monster.com warning about (& quite thoroughly detailing) the types of internet scams aimed at job seekers, my spam filter also caught this one, which purported to be a delivery failure notice for an email I ostensibly sent to these people.  It included attachments for both the 'message' I sent & the 'order' I failed to place - and no, I didn't open them.

But here's the thing why I'm posting this here.  The text of the scam email starts off with perfectly good tech-speak:

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.

Delivery to the following recipients failed.


but then in a window below it previews the message:

Forwarded Message: Order Information (Bull. #728
Order Information (Bull. #728

Hello, member!

We are glad to inform you, that constantly we work above
improvement of our site and we try to place various entertaining
and beautiful materials.

Now we have made the new design, new fast system of access to a content.

Our sites is updated daily by interesting, exclusive materials.


As most of you know, I have taught English to non-native speakers from just about everywhere, and the badness of this bit seems to be pretty obviously (to me anyway) of a Slavic language origin.  Almost as priceless as English As She Is Spoke. And who in the world uses the leading parenthesis, then forgets – TWICE – to close it?
« Last Edit: November 19, 2009, 09:59:41 AM by mshray »
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RGMike

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Re: Copyedit 101
« Reply #77 on: November 19, 2009, 10:01:24 AM »
I would say at least 2/3 of the spam I get is written in bad ESL-speak. Russian, Chinese, whatever. Quite hilarious that anyone at the other end would think this stuff would fool anyone.
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mshray

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Re: Copyedit 101
« Reply #78 on: December 16, 2009, 12:45:51 PM »
This could almost as easily go in the Mondegreens forum, but check out this funny article from ESPN's Rick Reilly on the unintended hilarity to be found in sports programs' Clothes Cap Shunning.  Be sure to appreciate the final paragraph.
« Last Edit: December 16, 2009, 12:49:50 PM by mshray »
"Music is the Earth, People are the Flowers, and I am the Hose."

--Carlos Santana, 2010

RGMike

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Re: Copyedit 101
« Reply #79 on: December 16, 2009, 12:57:23 PM »
This could almost as easily go in the Mondegreens forum, but check out this funny article from ESPN's Rick Reilly on the unintended hilarity to be found in sports programs' Clothes Cap Shunning.  Be sure to appreciate the final paragraph.

Great stuff.  I've long been a fan of misspelled CAP SHUNS.  I think I've mentioned before that whenever Mike Krukow says "grab some pine, meat!" the captions invariably say "GRAB SOME PIE AND MEAT".  And when Edgardo Alfonso was a Giant, his name was usually Guard Dough Alfonse.
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mshray

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Re: Copyedit 101
« Reply #80 on: February 02, 2010, 03:21:38 PM »
Okay gang, we all need to take a demerit for this one...

I just noticed that the subheading on the In Memoriam, Happy Birthday forum has a spelling error.  It has been there since the first post on Jan 25, 2005 (when Johnny Carson passed), and no one has fixed it until now.  The Copy Edit 101 thread has been in existence since January of 2007, so for at least 3 full years we've been making fun of others while this was sitting there on the club's Main Discussion Area for all to see.

The irony is just killing me!
"Music is the Earth, People are the Flowers, and I am the Hose."

--Carlos Santana, 2010

Lightnin' Rod

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Re: Copyedit 101
« Reply #81 on: February 02, 2010, 04:24:11 PM »
Okay gang, we all need to take a demerit for this one...

I just noticed that the subheading on the In Memoriam, Happy Birthday forum has a spelling error.  It has been there since the first post on Jan 25, 2005 (when Johnny Carson passed), and no one has fixed it until now.  The Copy Edit 101 thread has been in existence since January of 2007, so for at least 3 full years we've been making fun of others while this was sitting there on the club's Main Discussion Area for all to see.

The irony is just killing me!

I sense controversy!  Getting mixed results looking up profer / proffer.  I think proferred works...  Need real dictionary.

ETA:  I am almost certain that I've never written either profer or proffer, ever, in my entire lifetime.
« Last Edit: February 02, 2010, 04:28:52 PM by Rod »
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ggould

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Re: Copyedit 101
« Reply #82 on: February 02, 2010, 06:40:59 PM »
Okay gang, we all need to take a demerit for this one...

I just noticed that the subheading on the In Memoriam, Happy Birthday forum has a spelling error.  It has been there since the first post on Jan 25, 2005 (when Johnny Carson passed), and no one has fixed it until now.  The Copy Edit 101 thread has been in existence since January of 2007, so for at least 3 full years we've been making fun of others while this was sitting there on the club's Main Discussion Area for all to see.

The irony is just killing me!

I sense controversy!  Getting mixed results looking up profer / proffer.  I think proferred works...  Need real dictionary.

ETA:  I am almost certain that I've never written either profer or proffer, ever, in my entire lifetime.
it's my error, if it is one.  Looking up both spellings, it's a little confusing:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/proffer

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/profer
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mshray

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Re: Copyedit 101
« Reply #83 on: February 03, 2010, 02:18:21 PM »
it failed the spellcheck in Windows Word, and I have never seen it or used it with the single f. 

but I'm not a typical person when it comes to vocabulary.   The other day I confessed to having misunderstood something "because I conflated" one thing with another.  My new co-worker (educated white guy) looked at me stunned and said, "I have NEVER heard anyone use that word in a sentence before."
"Music is the Earth, People are the Flowers, and I am the Hose."

--Carlos Santana, 2010

ggould

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Re: Copyedit 101
« Reply #84 on: February 03, 2010, 08:12:35 PM »
it failed the spellcheck in Windows Word, and I have never seen it or used it with the single f. 

but I'm not a typical person when it comes to vocabulary.   The other day I confessed to having misunderstood something "because I conflated" one thing with another.  My new co-worker (educated white guy) looked at me stunned and said, "I have NEVER heard anyone use that word in a sentence before."
I had to explain what "canary in a coal mine" meant to my freshmen today.
Don't stand in the way of LOVE!

Tinka Cat

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Re: Copyedit 101
« Reply #85 on: April 16, 2010, 12:10:48 PM »
as is Death Cab for Cutie didn't get on my nerves enough, there's this lyric


Meet me on the equinox, meet me half way
When the sun is perched at its highest peak
In the middle of the day


ah yes, much better than one of those lower peaks...


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mshray

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Re: Copyedit 101
« Reply #86 on: April 16, 2010, 12:22:45 PM »
as is Death Cab for Cutie didn't get on my nerves enough, there's this lyric


Meet me on the equinox, meet me half way
When the sun is perched at its highest peak
In the middle of the day


ah yes, much better than one of those lower peaks...

not to mention the redundancy of the sun at its highest peakpoint being the very definition of the middle of the day.
"Music is the Earth, People are the Flowers, and I am the Hose."

--Carlos Santana, 2010

ggould

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Re: Copyedit 101
« Reply #87 on: April 16, 2010, 10:04:31 PM »
as is Death Cab for Cutie didn't get on my nerves enough, there's this lyric


Meet me on the equinox, meet me half way
When the sun is perched at its highest peak
In the middle of the day


ah yes, much better than one of those lower peaks...
not to mention the redundancy of the sun at its highest peakpoint being the very definition of the middle of the day.

I thought the middle of the day was 12:00 PM.
« Last Edit: April 16, 2010, 10:06:30 PM by ggould »
Don't stand in the way of LOVE!

RGMike

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Re: Copyedit 101
« Reply #88 on: May 17, 2010, 06:45:27 PM »
Typo of the Week: a fancast.com story about the fall TV schedule refers to that big NFL championship game in February as the Super Bowel. Insert toilet humor here.

http://www.fancast.com/blogs/2010/tv-news/fall-tv-schedule-glees-on-the-move-idol-stays-put-plus-new-shows/?cmpid=FCST_hero
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urth

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Re: Copyedit 101
« Reply #89 on: May 17, 2010, 06:50:15 PM »
Typo of the Week: a fancast.com story about the fall TV schedule refers to that big NFL championship game in February as the Super Bowel. Insert toilet humor here.

http://www.fancast.com/blogs/2010/tv-news/fall-tv-schedule-glees-on-the-move-idol-stays-put-plus-new-shows/?cmpid=FCST_hero

Looks right to me--what's the problem?  :D
Let's get right to it.