Some things about copy-editing will always throw me. A personal failing: I have to look up any word with double letters, every single time. A cultural difference: The dictionary I used at most of the magazines I worked at, Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate, has different preferred spellings (and hyphenization) of some words than Webster’s New World, which we use here.

But then there’s the case of headlines. Here are the rules I learned:

Read More “Things I Am Not Clear On: Title Case in Headlines” »

Man did Dresden ever screw up. Yesterday UNESCO removed the German city from its World Heritage List “due to the building of a four-lane bridge in the heart of the cultural landscape,”according to a press release I got yesterday.

Dresden! You fools! But then UNESCO follows the dope-slap with a nipple-twist:
“Sacred mountain in Kyrgyzstan enters List along with Iran’s Shushtar water system and Royal tombs in Republic of Korea” reads the headline of another press release I got today. Royal tombs in the ROK, sure. Iran’s Shushtar water system? I’m surprised it wasn’t on there already. But Sacred Mountain in Kyrgyzstan? Come on, that thing is such a piece of shit. No way it’s on there for any other reason than to put the screws to Dresden. Come on, UNESCO, be cool! When someone’s down, you stop punching.

Sit in the front or the back of the train. The weenies are in the middle of the car, Twittering.

Geoffrey Birchard, an associate professor at George Mason University, helped discover a problem. According to a press release sent out by GMU, Birchard and his crew figured out that the traditional method for calculating the mass of dinosaurs was faulty.

As such, the release states: “some dinosaurs may actually have weighed as little as half as much as previously thought.”

Read More “Dinosaurs: Not the Prehistoric Lardasses We Thought They Were” »

Newspapers are making money! First order of business: Bye-bye, Twitter account! Second order of business: Car service everywhere! Finally, I think I will destroy Mark Sanford’s life. It’s been a rough couple of years, and I’m glad things are back to the way they should be.

Nutty’s got the video.

Jason Cherkis is on the scene for the press conference announced after yesterday’s shooting at the Columbia Heights Metro.

3:37 Press conference hasn’t started, but there’s a band of protesters already across Irving Street. They’re protesting the gang injunction. Roughly 10 of them, waving signs with a bullhorn. Protesters are changing, “Intervention, not injunction,” and “Prosecute criminals, not innocent people.” Press conference is 10 minutes late.

However, the fight at the convention center that yesterday Councilmember Jim Graham said was related to the shooting appears to be unrelated to this one.

Read More “Live From the Post-Columbia Heights Shooting Press Conference; Evans Says Think West Side Story!” »

Welcome to Freedom Friday! I’m briefly redefining libertarianism to include things that are interesting. As in…

• Dan Froomkin canned! Intensely weird Bush-hating shut-ins mount campaign of angry comments on blogs read only by other intensely weird Bush-hating shut-ins. A neocon powerplay, or the political-commentary EQ of JazzTimes folding?

Read More “Noon Roundup: Oh, Hell, Riggs Wanted ME to Do the Roundup Edition” »

Andrew Sullivan, I thought you were displaying poor judgment when I saw you trucking up the Rock Creek Trail, letting your freak dome fly. Guy we put on the cover, I thought you were the ass clown. And while I’ll never come over to your side on the bike-helmet debate, I offer you an excellent argument against their use:

Read More “Dear Bike-Helmet Haters: I Am Sorry, You Were Right” »

…it’s Dave Nuttycombe, who’s been whaling on the Silverdocs coverage. Here he talks to the director of Splitting Hairs:

Olsen shares a truism about living the bearded life — you become recognized for your hair rather than your face. “They remember me because of the beard but I don’t remember them,� he says. I, with my styish goatee, know this experience.

Twitter! Have you heard of it? IT’S FREAKING HUGE! It’s even defeating evil dictators who don’t actually run their countries and putting awesome pro-American dudes in their place. Oh wait, it’s not. Man, the media runs hot and cold on these things, don’t we? It is not too late, though, for you to foment revolution…by following Patrick Gavin on Twitter! Forced from the Examiner (whose owner just bought something or other) because he refused to wear a bow tie (REVOLUTION!), the Politico columnist is a Washington Insider You Should Follow on Twitter. Some recent tweets from Gavin:

Read More “Morning Roundup: Twhittle, Too Late Edition” »

They go together like sports and wine! Orr Shtuhl hangs on the porch with NPR.

The Man has been hard at work. During the winter, The Man blasted me with heat like a rotisserie chicken. Now He is trying to freeze me out. Well, The Man, I have news for You. You see that FedEx box on my ceiling, the one covering the duct? Oh yeah, it’s a box You gave me for free. You have given me the tools with which I shall defeat You. I didn’t bring in my own tape, either. Deal with it.

WEEK 23 (JUNE 1–5) FINALISTS

• Jayme McLellan, who not only notes that artist Erick Jackson “does not smoke the weeds” but also makes an impassioned plea against labeling art: “An artist doesn’t have to have one type of style to convey what it is they seek to convey. This over-stylizing of drawing places some artists in a box. There’s no need for the box.” So true!

Read More “Commenter of the Week!” »

The news that D.C. tops the nation in cocaine use, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, is hard to process. It’s like finding out that Los Angelenos read the most books or that Tampa has the fewest back tattoos.

We’re Top 5 for marijuana and binge-drinking, which should surprise no one who’s bought a jumbo slice on a weekend night, but check out these numbers: Read More “D.C. No. 1 in Cocaine Use” »