A Monthly Meditation on Branding and Language From Your Favorite Copy Shop, Editorial
Emergency
Issue 26 (March 27, 2009):
Ice the Splice
Join us, dear readers, as we vent our spleen on the comma splice; make the leap from the farmers' market to marketing; get down in the basement; and gaze in amazement at a Not Our Clients chiseled in granite.
Red Pen Diaries: Zero Tolerance for Comma Splices
Are comma splices running rampant, or is it just me?
I keep seeing them in newspapers and magazines and on billboards and can't help but wonder if they, too, are now
becoming acceptable, as have so many once-verboten grammar, ahem, alternatives before them. I sure hope not —
as you might guess, I'm agin 'em.
So you can imagine my ire when I saw this in the New York Daily News last week: "She had a headache, she had
no signs of impact, no bleeding."
Shopping at local farmers' markets has transformed my thinking, and not just about food.
I grew up with the supermarket. And though my parents always threw a mountain of fruit and vegetables into the
cart, I became accustomed to the flawlessly spherical, evenly colored, impeccably unblemished produce on display without ever
considering what I might be missing.
Not that the folks were ignorant of Big Agribusiness' shortcomings. My father groused memorably about how all the
flavor had been engineered out of store-bought tomatoes.
Despite being a music fanatic, I usually can't work up much enthusiasm for performance DVDs. Which
may be why it took me a while to get around to "From the Basement," a collection of live workouts by some of the
leading lights of modern rock. But the surprising intimacy and ferocity showcased in this British comp mark it as a
standout. Celebrated producer Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Beck, Travis) masterminded the project (first as a series
of downloads for sale, then as a TV show) and supervised the recordings; his attention to detail paid off.
Gather 'round, scouts — let's regard this expensive marble plaque commemorating our achievements and ... d'oh!
It seems there's no merit badge for spelling.
Yes, a great fortune was lavished on this eternal monument to a scout troupe's effort toward "a common goal" but not a dime's worth of effort toward proofreading. And so "persistance" will eternally haunt those who lacked the persistence to read it over before setting it in stone.
Loyal Editorializing readers Wendy Bryan and Codi Lazar deserve their own plaque for scouting out this and numerous other Not Our Clients contributions. Instead, they'll receive a smaller and flimsier (albeit similarly rectangular) reward: an iTunes gift card. You can score one, too, if we use your submission; go ahead —
Or simply earn a badge for tying yourself in knots courtesy of the latest installment of Not Our Clients.
Editorial Emergency puts words in your mouth.
Assuming
you're a marketer, creative, lifestyler,
artist and/or do-gooder who want to connect with and persuade consumers. We've worked for
these kinds of
clients on this kind of
stuff.
In case of editorial emergency, break glass and call ...
(323) 259-5876 e-mail: surf:www.editorialemergency.com send checks: 2062 Panamint Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90065
Are comma splices running rampant, or is it just me?
Shopping at local farmers' markets has transformed my thinking, and not just about food.
Despite being a music fanatic, I usually can't work up much enthusiasm for performance DVDs. Which
may be why it took me a while to get around to "
