Can’t fly out of MKE without taking a pic of the post-security Recombobulation Area. See you soon at #ACES2026!

Set for release in May. I’m gonna say this is a bad idea. The youths’ love of 67 has (or had) an expiration date. These should have come out a year ago. In fairness, that’s probably when someone at Perdue pitched the idea to their bosses.

eliminate redundant work from your workflow --> eliminate redundant work #AmEditing #irony

including but not limited to --> including I have yet to encounter a situation when “including but not limited to” was necessary. #AmEditing

The three #Jeopardy! contestant were shown a photo of Adam Carolla, and none of them knew who he was. They’re probably better off.

we will work collaboratively --> we will collaborate this collaborative endeavor --> this collaboration Sometimes, one word gets the job done. #AmEditing

this methodology is leveraged on a monthly cadence --> we use this method monthly #AmEditing

we have the capability to --> we can #AmEditing

Saw an ad for a local business that says, “Quality and service, just like it used to be ...” I often hear of this mystical time, this golden era when everything was made of higher quality, everyone worked hard, and customer service was awash with courtesy and positivity. When exactly was this?

If you’re an HR employee being paid to make your employer look good, “201 positions impacted in district reductions” is a logical choice of words. If you’re a journalist writing a headline, “201 people to lose their jobs” is probably a better, more straightforward choice.

Q: When a news story says a pitcher is the third-youngest opening day starter in franchise history, what other piece of information should appear somewhere in that story? A: The two younger opening day starters. This story does not contain that information. My kingdom for a copy editor.

It’s 2026 and when we get locked out of our email, IT help desks are still sending reactivation instructions to the email address we’re locked out of.

About 700 years ago, “snew” was a perfectly acceptable past tense of the verb “snow.” Know, knew. Blow, blew. Snow, snew. By the 1600s, “snowed” had become the dominant form, and “snew” had all but drifted away, although I hear it still pops up in some dialects today.

I was explaining to a friend that Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings has a near-doppelgänger (a nearpelgänger if you will) in Australia whose name is Ben Pennngs. She wanted to see a side-by-side photo. To my surprise, a Google search produced zero results, so I created one.

The president of the United States has essentially started a Patreon page. Join now to unlock exclusive content!

If I email you and you want to reply, please don’t text me or ping me in Teams. Just click Reply. The Reply button is right there at the top of the email. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

AP style is all lowercase and "saving" (singular). Don't forget to move your clocks an hour forward before you go to bed tonight. In the U.S., daylight saving time officially starts at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday in March.

Working from a coffee shop. There were a couple of older fellas at the table next to me. One of them looked around, shook his head, and said, “Everyone’s on their computers.” Then they got up and left. I don’t know what to tell ya, pal. This is how a lot of people work. Many of us quite enjoy it.

Hey, business jargon users: Where did the term “future state” come from? What’s wrong with plain old “future”? It’s a perfectly fine noun on its own. Must we always add more syllables?

Nothing sucks the life out of your body and soul like teaching improv to middle schoolers who don’t want to be there.

Spotted the following in an article about generative AI: “Tempted to ask ChatGPT to write a love letter to your romantic interest? New research suggests that won’t go over well.” I could have saved the researchers a lot of time.

Alex Pretti was legally carrying. ICE agents surrounded him, took his gun, beat him, and shot him dead. To all the 2nd Amendment diehards claiming the government is coming for our guns: Where is your outrage? The government literally came for a citizen’s gun in broad daylight.

I guess everything’s farmed locally for the people who are in that place. (I am not in that place.)

Yep. What if all the things we’ve been labeling “distractions” were never distractions? What if they’re the things we’re supposed to paying attention to?

The SPEAKER implies. The LISTENER infers. The DUDE abides.

Seen in a news story today: “The Milwaukee Brewers are expected to add another catcher to their organization prior to the end of the 2025-26 offseason.” “Prior to the end of the 2025-26 offseason” is an awfully roundabout way to say “before the 2026 season.”

A fellow editor just messaged me and pointed out our shared infinity for words. They meant affinity. I don’t know if I should politely correct them, post about it here, or both.

#Jeopardy musings: When a contestant uses a questionable pronunciation, Ken will passively-aggressively repeat the response with the “correct” pronunciation. When they hunt for the Daily Double and find it before they have a handle on the category, they might be shooting themselves in the foot.

LinkedIn pushed a post into my feed from some guy I don’t know. It was a photo of “The Elements of Style” by Strunk & White, and the text included praise for Elon Musk. I had been having a perfectly fine day until then.

There are two errors in this sentence from a Newsweek article: 1. “Diffuse” should be “defuse.” 2. “Actor Rob Schneider” should be “Buffoon Rob Schneider.”

The more I pay attention to the way people pronounce “chocolate,” the more I think my pronunciation is the less common one.

We share insights based on our insights and experiences —> We share insights based on our experiences #AmEditing

When given the choice between a two-syllable word and a four-syllable word, many writers will say, “Oooo … I’ll use the four-syllable word. Then I’ll sound smarter.” The trouble is, your readers prefer the two-syllable word. They don’t have time for your BS.

“Language change has always been beyond our control and shaped by invisible factors. Your preferences don’t really matter, because linguistic evolution reflects cultural moments more than the feelings of individual people.” — from “Algospeak” by Adam Aleksic

This guy wrote “Star Trick Next Generation” instead of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” AND THE JUDGES ACCEPTED IT! What’s this world coming to? #Jeopardy

My money’s on a ghostwritten book and an early elimination from Dancing With the Stars Season 36.

My fellow copy editors: If you’re on social media talking about how much you hate when people say this or that, or you’re ranting about petty trash like “less” vs. “fewer,” you’re not helping yourself get hired, nor are you helping boost the profession. No one wants to work with a judgmental a-hole.

I’m not a millennial myself, but I must say I do enjoy the millennial pause.

M-W spent that extra hour getting feisty.

My 16-year-old was telling me about one of his favorite YouTubers. Instead of releasing short videos every few days, this guy releases one two-hour video every couple of years. I said, “Son, back in my day, we called such videos ‘movies.’” Everything old is new again.

Grammarly is changing its name to Superhuman, apparently in a move to rebrand itself as a multipurpose AI-powered all-in-one solution, not just a mostly useless editing tool.

I wish not to offend anyone, but I dislike the word “hubby.” I take no issue with those who use it. I just don’t like it.

About once a month for the last 20 years, someone has asked me, “Hey, are you a cop?” It must be the bald head and the stern look. Sometimes I reply, “No, I’m a cop ... eee editor!” No one ever gets it. Ever.

Parents, please check your kids’ candy this Halloween. I’ve just found an ancient metal whistle with the inscription “QUIS EST ISTE QUI VENIT" inside a Snickers bar. I blew it and heard a note of infinite distance, and now I’m haunted by a figure in pale, fluttering draperies. Be safe.

So there are currently … seven and a half?

Ignore the adorable cat for a moment, and answer me this: Have you heard people use this phrasal template in face-to-face conversation—as opposed to only seeing it in memes? Because I know I have. I’m reading “Algospeak” by @etymologynerd.bsky.social, and I’m high alert for this kind of stuff.

Me, a copy editor, scouring the web to figure out what all these abbreviations mean when the author could have taken the few extra seconds necessary to fully spell the words.

Took my 3-year-old niece out to lunch. She said she wanted a cheeseburger. When her cheeseburger arrived, she was like, “WTF? I didn’t want meat.” Turns out she wanted a grilled cheese, which her parents have been letting her call a cheeseburger her whole life. SMH, what’s this world coming to?

I’m not saying em dashes are good or bad or a sign of AI or whatever. I’m just saying you don’t need an em dash in every sentence. You certainly don’t need three in one sentence. I mean, really.

I keep getting notifications from the Starbucks app announcing new secret menu drinks, and I don’t think they understand how secrets work.