News Note: Gannett kills copy desks
—John E.
McIntyre, columnist, on word that the Cincinnati Enquirer and other newspapers
are eliminating copy editors, “And then there were none,” The Baltimore Sun,
Nov. 23, 2014
• Editorial Comment: Hello, Sun copy desk, shouldn’t that be, “And then there was none. . . .”?
PeezPix by Ted Pease
Short Skiff Stack
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Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD
“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
.
TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.)
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD
“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
.
"None" is either a singular or a plural pronoun, and has been since Normans were seducing Saxon girls. Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Englis Usage, exposing the superstition that "none" is only a singular, cites a plural use by Alfred the Great in A.D. 888.
ReplyDeleteI will humbly accept your interpretation, John—it’s your quote and newspaper, after all. But I disagree with you and the Normans, who were interest in other matters than grammar as they pursued screaming Saxons. But unless engaged in similar activities, I’ll stick with none as a contraction of “not one.”
DeleteWhich is worse? Readers stop taking the paper b/c it's so thin/bad? Or those readers that remain don't notice.
ReplyDeleteI'm teaching copy editing again this semester. One wonders why I should infect these kids with heightened sensitivites when they’ll never be employed as editors. They'll just turn into embittered readers who yell at the newspaper on the kitchen table.