State abbreviations:

1. can be found in the AP Stylebook.

2. are not the postal abbreviations (e.g., California is Calif., not CA; New York is N.Y., not NY).

3. are not needed if the city is a dateline city (see AP).

4. are nonessential clauses, and, as such, are set off by commas on both sides!
E.g., The Lions will travel to Hanover, N.H., on Saturday.
West Palm Beach, Fla., is full of old people.

-Amy

A Lesson Learned

It's been quite an interesting Thursday night at the copydesk (a night that, in truth, is still going strong for Marissa and Darya), but I think we can all take comfort in the fact that our most endearing of staffers has learned a valuable life lesson. Behold his most recent e-mail:

"thanks man. i always knew there was a synergy between us. drugs areso awful for quelling suffering. never again."

Copy cares, CML. Remember that.

Overheard in the Office

Darya: "CML has the giggles. I'm convinced he's a 13-year-old girl."
CML: "As long as I'm Hermione Granger. Then at least I can be hot."

Thursday Night Missive

Dearest staff,

Tonight I received an e-mail from one Christopher "CML" Morris-Lent. It is difficult for me to summarize the contents of said e-mail, or to do justice to the veritable poetry and insight contained therein. It is so wonderful that I can even excuse the lack of adherence to Spec style. For your reading pleasure, I have copied and pasted it below. Savor his words. —ICB

"SHIT DOG
I could come in, but I must warn you that I have ingested multiple
drugs at this time owing to the tragic, retarded,
worse-than-Darfur-and-Iraq put together loss of the previously noble
Texas A&M men's basketball team. However, this shouldn't adversely
affect (note that I spelled this word correctly, unlike the rest of
the Sports section - especially that sexy dog Auggy) my ability to
work, since my staring at the screen won't really matter (I don't do
anything 80% of the time either) and I seem to be able to type words
that are both spelled correctly and components of syntactically sound
sentences. Anyway, hit me up.

Love,

CML

P.S. I just suffered the weirdest visual hallucination, but I doubt
that this is any concern of yours."

Post-break Updates

Perhaps you are feeling a little low this week—I mean, spring break is over, some of us still have midterms (thanks, Professor Gitlin), the housing lottery looms on the horizon, and production on the paper is back in full swing. Fortunately, I have some news to cheer you up! You should be absolutely thrilled that:

1) We're having our first-ever party on Saturday night at 10 p.m. It will take place in Darya's apartment, and I can promise that a good time will be had by all. I think I invited everyone via Facebook, but let me know if you have any questions. And be sure to stop by on Saturday!

2) I can officially announce that Preeti Bhattacharji will be the new Weekend ACE! She is a delight, and we're very lucky to have her on board. Be sure to congratulate her if you see her before the party on Saturday (which you'll all be attending, right?)!

3) Spectator held a town hall for the student community tonight, and it was very informative and helpful. I'll share more about what it means for our section at our meetings on Sunday.

What news! Typing it up puts a smile on my face! I'll share more as it comes my way.

In the meantime, I wonder if there's anything else that I should remind you of. Oh, right:
COME TO THE PARTY ON SATURDAY.

Overheard in the Office

"She sends me e-mails about abortions sometimes."
-Darya Deker, Gameday ACE

How not to integrate quotes

From the New York Times:

“You are all such do-gooders,” Ms. Orenstein said laughing, “I love this.”

Amy