I've been waiting for an open thread for a while to ask for the collective wisdom of Making Light readers - I'm trying to put together a mix CD for a friend of mine who is hoping to visit New York next year. (His savings have been drained by needing to help support an elderly, ill aunt, else he would have gone long ago. He's a great guy, needless to say.) Can anyone offer relevant songs? I've got a few obvious ones - NYNY, NY state of mind, Fairytale of (in?) NY - but any other suggestions are warmly appreciated. Thanks.
This has nothing to do with a trademark issue, but any excuse to quote from the OED:
1917 ‘CONTACT’ Airman's Outings 211 The *super-heroes of the war. 1980 Dædalus Spring 119 The only people foolish enough to believe in fairy tales and superheroes (the last survivals in the mythology of atheism).
I'm currently applying for teaching posts in creative writing, and if I ever get one I'm going to make it mandatory for my students to visit a Real Publisher, the smaller the better. There's a huge difference between knowing intellectually that the editors don't hate you, and seeing for yourself that the center of the main floor is awash in 900 poetry manuscripts submitted for a single competition, and having to delay manuscript returns for an extra six months because you're cleaning up after the office gets flooded, and reading cover letter after cover letter that screams PLEASE DON'T HURT MY FEELINGS in the nicest possible way.
Being an intern allows me to play God (we get to reject manuscripts ourselves, it's that small an operation), but it keeps me humble. Best of all possible worlds!
Jane, I hear you. I had been in the UK for nearly a year before I realized (or realised) that the reason I could never remember whether it was spelled traveled or travelled was because it depended on whether I was working in British or American English.
Do you who can spot typos on the fly have the same ability in British English? Or do flavour and shrivelled jump out as wrong, even when they aren't?
I just found another example of this type of skill - while walking through the library, in the 300 section, I had to stop and move back half a shelf because Something Was Not Right. Sure enough, a misshelved book. (And the 300s are nasty - lots and lots of numbers and subcategories.)
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| 2002 | 11 |
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