Unattributed Quote of the Day: Government

"Indeed, nearly every new goal or purpose the American people have defined for themselves over 230 years has been anchored in the Constitution, or at least in constitutional rhetoric. That has proved vital to the survival and stability of the nation, but it has also made everything else that has come after seem merely instrumental in character. The ideal end-state, presumed to be readable between the lines of the Constitution’s text, is a perpetually receding horizon. The American people are ceaseless in their pursuit of that horizon, rarely pausing to reflect on how they may have changed in their relationships with one another as citizens during the pursuit or how their perception of what stands on that horizon may have changed as well."

I Am He as You Are He . . .

Copyediting a huge tome (the second of 18 volumes over the next eight years or so), and I'm glad that the indexes that I'll eventually do for each volume are names only. Why?

But I am able to experience God by experiencing myself as a you of God when I discover myself to be “His,” that is to say, when I feel that I am yours, the you of the I. I discover God not when I discover Him as a you (to whom I address myself), but as an I who addresses himself to me, and for whom my “ego” is His “you.” I am then a you of God. 

Subheads, Indexing and

Today's gripe is one I've been harboring for some time.

Authors, take some notes.

When you're writing subheads within chapters, you'd be doing your readers -- and your indexer -- a great favor if the text of the subhead actually bore some resemblance to the content following it.

Some authors and publishers present an indexer's dream: accurately and concisely written subheads that from word one of the new section -- or at least beginning in the second paragraph -- address the stated topic. They are in the minority.

Many offer a page or so of introductory or transitional material before getting around to the topic.

The outliers, though, are the ones who drive me crazy. They'll take a phrase such as "Morality and Essential Freedoms" and not address essential freedoms by name for the next eight pages. Maybe the topic appears in the section summary.

I suspect this writing approach also leads to authors who feel that some subjects don't receive enough treatment in the index. I can hear it: "But, but, a whole section on morality and essential freedoms started on page 27 and ran for 10 pages."

Yeah, but you didn't get around to talking about it specifically until page 36. Not my problem, bub.

Today's Charming Website

Found this when trying to track down first names for some folks who lost their lives at the Bastille:

http://www.executedtoday.com/

Hallmark really needs to pair this up with birthday greetings.

Word for Today

I'm proofreading a horribly copyedited book on the Obama presidency from a publisher that should know better. Came across the word "suppositiously," and I thought, That's not a word.

Well, sorta. It's an alternative for . . . supposititiously.

Frankly, I think English can do without either one.

And the context . . .

Other items in the book: Hilary [sic] Clinton, Ross [sic] Limbaugh, Mitch [sic] Romney. Not to mention zero command of en dashes and capitalization. Your basic train wreck.

In Memoriam: Cecily Kaganov Land Kass, 1934-1994

My mother would have been eighty years old today. She died thirteen days after her sixtieth birthday.

Red hair and freckles . . . just like every other nice Jewish girl from Brooklyn.

A Lost Art

"Also, according to best documentary editing practice, all documents were tandem oral proofread (one person reading aloud from the original and another correcting the transcription against it) for accuracy."

With the person reading aloud banging on the desk and making different guttural noises for varying types of punctuation, in the hands of a master, read-alouds can be rather entertaining.

Leaving the House Is Always an Adventure

In preparation for summer I went up to the Exalt Academy of Cosmetology -- one of the great rackets of all time. They train hair stylists there, so you're paying to have your hair cut, and the people cutting your hair are paying to cut it. How did I miss out on this action?

For $6, they can shave my head as close as they dare.

I'm sitting in the chair with my eyes closed, which is how I spent forty-eight years getting my hair cut, because I couldn't see a thing without my glasses. I had two hours of sleep last night / this morning, so I was dozing. Besides, being in a barber's chair with sight makes me uncomfortable.

All of a sudden, I hear this voice: "Excuse me, excuse me." I figured I was being served some warrant for an unknown offense.

There's this mammaw on a rolling stool next to me saying, "I really like your hair that like. Do you do that often? Your hair looks so good like that. I just wanted to tell you that looks good." This is like being told, "Put the Halloween mask back on."

Finally she rolled away, and before I went back to sleep, I told the girl cutting my hair, "That woman scared the hell out of me." At least I got a chuckle out of the trainee.

End of story.

Index Review Instructions for Authors

Well . . . there's a searchable title, if the Google ever condescends to picking up this blog again. Maybe soon.

Working on an index for an author who has never been through the process. The author asked what to look for upon receiving the index. I'll post my response here, which also means I might be able to find it for boilerplate in case I ever need it again:

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I'd just make sure that the index accurately captures the themes in the book and presents them in a way that your intended readership would expect.

Not that I want to forecast anything, but a lot of authors will say, "Looks good" and maybe reword an entry or two. Occasionally an author will ask for more detailed treatment of a subject. Very rarely, I'll have an author request wholesale changes; usually it's a case of an author expecting a concordance (which an index is not) or trying to make connections or pump up coverage of a topic in the index that the text itself doesn't necessarily justify.

One place your input would be welcome would be on consolidation of subentries, especially under an all-consuming entry such as "Internet." Sometimes my indexes get a little too granular or detailed, and if you can help me in tightening up subentries, if you think it's necessary, that would be great.

Today's Unattributed Quote: Social Sciences

[might be a few more of these. sort of an interesting book]

The North Korean Chosun Central TV channel reported the results of a survey which confirmed that North Korea is the second “happiest” country in the world, beaten only by China. The other countries that round out the top five happiest list include Cuba, Iran, and Venezuela, in that order. Perhaps not so shockingly, South Korea ranked near the bottom at 152, while the United States came in dead last out of the 203 countries “surveyed” (International Business Times 2011).

APA Derangement Syndrome

I can recommend absolutely nothing about the work pictured here -- from the design and organization of the printed volume to the style regime recommended therein.

The only thing I can imagine is that the book is a revenue generator for reasons that have nothing to do with editorial style. The American Psychological Association publishes this monstrosity to drive people into the arms of the people whose careers the APA supports.

Great Index Entry

I am pretty certain that deep in the bowels of this blog I've already noted this name, but here he is again:

Dear, John, 225

Plea to Authors

When writing a 230-page book with seven chapters, please don't make the first chapter 60 pages long. You're not going to make any friends among your readers . . . or please your indexer.

Not that the length of the chapter affects the index much, but I'd sure like to feel that I'm getting somewhere.

Thank you.

The management.

Today's Unattributed Quote: Theology

"If understood properly, suffering has teleological value; it is life’s warning system, causing us to reevaluate our life direction, moving us toward eventual fulfillment, deepening our sense of compassion, and requiring that we seek companionship and community along the way as we travel toward an uncertain yet promising future."

An Interesting Phrase

Came across the phrase, “The game is not worth the candle,” which I'd never heard.

Explanation:

“The returns from an activity or enterprise do not warrant the time, money or effort required. For example, ‘The office he is running for is so unimportant that the game's not worth the candle.’ This expression, which began as a translation of a term used by the French essayist Michel de Montaigne in 1580, alludes to gambling by candlelight, which involved the expense of illumination. If the winnings were not sufficient, they did not warrant the expense. Used figuratively, it was a proverb within a century.”

From Dictionary.com, The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

Today's Unattributed Quote: International Relations

Bring it on:

"Finally, as a society transitions to the postmaterial stage, its citizens will increasingly favor the values of self-expression and prefer leisure to work, and they will give decreasing emphasis to survival concerns, that is, the need to attend to their basic material needs for physical existence."

Those Wacky Germans

Reminds me of our trip to the dominatrix’s studio in Berlin back in 2000 (purely for research purposes and local color, of course. And who could turn down such an invitation?).


From the current project:

Berkeley, CA, 1916:

Kem Weber designed another party, held at the Forkes’ house on Berryman Street in mid-May. It was “for the benefit of the German bazaar” for war-relief. The theme was a “baby ball.” All of the attendees, including a number of other Berkeley professors and the German consul and vice-consul, dressed as infants, in diapers, with little bonnets. Weber designed the program, invitations, many of the costumes, and the decorations, transforming the Forke home “into a giant nursery.”

Testimonials: A Letter Rolled In

In case you’re not familiar with the phrase in the blog title, it’s typically used when a group sends a mass of letters to the editor that are obviously all the same text, just submitted by different people.

A new and welcome author came in over the transom a few days ago, and I asked how the person was familiar with my services. The response: 

A mentor of mine, a serial entrepreneur, asked a couple of his contacts on my behalf. He stated your name was given on multiple occasions. 

Not sure there were actually either a couple of contacts or multiple occasions. Smacks a little of an echo chamber, but I’m happy for the buzz.

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More on the testimonial front. Received a 120,000-word novel for copyediting, and the publisher couldn't take the job unless she could get quite hasty turnaround on the job in order to meet a print deadline: 

Getting this done so quickly has helped me and the author so much, Bob. I can’t thank you enough. 

And from a university press whose name you’d know:

The level of indexing was very thorough and the author was very pleased with the detailed index. The index was sent to me on time which was appreciated because of the short turnaround. 

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All this feels very nice, because the month has been brutal on numerous fronts. I'll get back to whining and complaining about work soon.

On a personal note, about 8 minutes ago, I turned 54 years old. In a hospital room on Staten Island, New York — same hospital where my father was born in 1932 — came one of the ugliest children on record. Badly jaundiced, dent in the head, ears rolled up. Story I once heard was that the nurse said, “What a beautiful baby," and one of my grandmothers burst into tears. I understand my dad went to the track for three days.

Notable things that happened on March 28? Three-Mile Island. Eisenhower died. However, my dear, departed Aunt Muriel was born — one of the wildest women I’ve ever known, and I wish I had known her better. And, damn, I wish I could be more like her. If we ever run into each other, ask me to tell some Aunt Muriel stories. She was seventy years old when my wife and I married, and friends of mine who were in their twenties would have been more than happy to hit on her. She looked kinda like Joan Collins, if Joan Collins was prettier and a lot classier without effort.

"If Understanding Was to Be Achieved."

Tell me about it.

I've almost forgotten what it's like to index a book in a different language. Now I'm remembering how little fun it is:

This is what effectively makes sense perception an unsuccessful competitor to a micro-corpuscularian natural philosophy. What Malebranche had offered was a comprehensive vindication of the sole legitimacy of micro-corpuscularian explanation. If Malebranche were right, the phenomenal level could not possibly have any explanatory autonomy, and the realm of sensation had to be bypassed in favour of a theoretical and wholly reductionist natural philosophy if understanding was to be achieved.

You Can't Go Home Again, but You Can Get Stuck There

Supposed to fly out of my hometown, New York City, later today for home in southwestern Virginia via Atlanta, my second hometown, but a bad winter storm is affecting the Southeast Wednesday and then moving up to New York on Thursday. Stuck in New York until Friday afternoon -- thankfully at a dear friend's apartment in Manhattan, which beats the hell out of sleeping on top of bags in an airport, or paying for two more nights in a New York hotel room. The poor bank account is hemorrhaging money. Maybe I can pull a shift of legal proofreading with my brother.

But my wife and I did go to the Westminster Dog Show this week -- the ultimate in low-stress entertainment -- and Pinter's No Man's Land and Beckett's Waiting for Godot in rep on Broadway last Saturday. (See website here.) As I mused to some friends beforehand, seems like anyone sitting through these two plays in one day deserves lollipops if they haven't started carving on their own wrists by the middle of act 2 of Godot. Great performances.

Our personal favorite in the Best of Show round. You can keep those goofy standard poodles. The corgi would have made us happy, too.