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

Midterm Stress

In the interest of looking out for your psychological welfare during this stressful period, we're having our second open thread to encourage the airing of grievances. Air away.

According to Amy... #1

Hey everyone! Tonight we're introducing this new feature to the blog, and I could not be more excited (I really couldn't, I swear).

You see, Amy Shaw, our wonderful deputy head copy editor, has so much wisdom to impart that she will now have a soapbox of her very own. Tonight's entry will be brief, but I'm confident that it will only whet your collective appetite for the greatness that is to come.

Amy advises, "Please avoid any variations on the phrase 'to wax nostalgic,' as it has been appearing too often in the paper."

This woman is gold!

Web Corrections, March 5, 2007 Edition

First off, thank you to everyone who's been checking the Web site for errors. You are helping to make our main site so much better, and I'm sure all our online readers are happy to encounter fewer mistakes when they read Spec.

Special thanks to Tess Rankin, who pointed out a couple errors in an Opinion piece ("Uterus on Strike") that ran today. #1: the author's name is Mary Ann Bonnet (not Maryann). #2: the piece originally contained the phrase "$11,000 dollars," which is horribly redundant. Alas, these may not be correct in the print edition, but at least they've been fixed online. Great work, Tess!

I'm sure these aren't the only mistakes, so please check the site and let me know if you find anything that needs to be changed.

Update: The second graf of the article "IMPLICATIONS: General Studies," by Jesse Dean and Tom Faure, described Mark Rosenthal as a "drama and theatre arts major." Remember, we should write that as "drama and theater arts major."

Overheard in Furnald

"I have a mini-orgasm every time I read The Wasteland."
-Daniella Zalcman, design editor, The Eye

Quick Note

Anonymous comments are now allowed.

New Policy #1

Item! Staffers, please put in a note stating your name at the bottom of each article that you edit.

Weekly Schedule

For personal reference, here's the schedule...

Sunday:
(ACEs: Marissa Grossman, Bob Ast)
6-9: Preeti Bhattacharji
7:30-9:30: Sara Maria Hasbun
9-12: Leonore Waldrip
10:30-1:30: Jimmy Vielkind

Monday:
(ACE: Jordan Fraade)
6-9: Jessica Fisher
7:30-10:30: Jacquelyn La Torre
9-12: Angela Jupp
10:30-1:30: Caitlin Bevvino-Ring

Tuesday:
(ACE: Ariel Schwartz)
6-9: Alli Farer
7:30-10:30: Kaitlyn Gaynor
9-12: Shifra Goldenberg
10:30-1:30: Kate Domash

Wednesday:
(ACEs: Becky Gallt, Emilie Griffin, Esther Weisbrod)
6-9: Elizabeth Gemdjian
7:30-10:30: Rachel Leopold
9-12: Sarah Hazlegrove
10:30-1:30: Becky Greenstein

Thursday:
(ACEs: Tiffany Tang, Darya Deker)
6-9: Tess Rankin
7:30-10:30: Lusia Zaitseva

9-12: Sara Rosenbaum
10:30-1:30: Chris "CML" Morris-Lent

Meeting Agenda #1

Here's the agenda from today's meeting, in case you didn't make it. Thank you to everyone who attended!

Copy Meeting, 3/4/07
Theme: Keep in Touch!

Part I: Go-to Guide
1) IN CASE OF EMERGENCIES:
Ian Corey-Boulet: ian.coreyboulet@gmail.com (or call 253.224.4640)
Jhanteigh Kupihea: jak2120@columbia.edu
2) IN CASE OF POOR WRITING:
Amy Shaw: als2136@columbia.edu
3) IN CASE OF WEB ERRORS:
Ian Corey-Boulet: ian.coreyboulet@gmail.com
John Davisson: john.davisson@gmail.com
Amanda Erickson: erickson.amanda@gmail.com
Robin Yang: robinyang@gmail.com
ACEs: speccopy@columbia.edu
4) IN CASE OF ANONYMOUS COMPLAINTS:
The new Copy blog! http://speccopy.blogspot.com

Part II: Talking Points
1) CQ-ing
Check all proper nouns (names/school-years/titles/clubs/organizations/artistic works/places)
2) Keep asking questions
Consult the following: ACE/Section editors/APStylebook/M-W/Google/Archives/NYTimes
3) Suspended production!!
4) Keep the comments coming…

Part III: Looking Ahead (Post-spring break)
1) The return of accents
2) The return of the style guide (?)
3) The return of Weekend
4) The first-ever Copy party (a real one)
5) On-call copy editing (Who’s with me? Let me know your schedule.)
6) Blog editing
7) Reading Spec on a regular basis
—Send me links to good articles at ian.coreyboulet@gmail.com

Tell me, what's on your mind?

Welcome to our first open thread. Please share your thoughts, comments, and concerns (or whatever, it's a free country). You don't even have to log in to comment!

Things you might want to discuss:
-do you need to switch your shift?
-what did you think of the meeting?
-what do you think of the blog's main image? (I, for one, think it cuts to the essence of Spec Copy.)
-what are good ideas for social events?
-what is all the latest?
-need a place to vent about your day? (Go ahead, be emo; I don't care.)

It begins...

Here we go!

I've created this blog in the interest of promoting better communication within our section. If it works, fantastic; if not, I won't lose too much sleep. Basically, I think this has the potential to be a better forum for coordinating shift changes, posting bad sentences/common errors, and generally keeping people informed.

Things I plan on posting regularly:
1) open comment threads wherein you can vent (anonymously, if necessary)
2) links to stories that are particularly well-edited
3) kudos to copy staffers and ACEs who go above and beyond
4) updates about social events, both within our section and Spec as a whole
5) reminders about Spec style (and possible changes to it)
6) anything else that pops into my head

I encourage you all to check it regularly, and to add your own entries as well. After all, this was created with you in mind.

The log-in name is speccopy@gmail.com, and the password (as always) is "stylebook" (no quotes around it when you type it in, though).

Please let me know what you think of this. Is it A) stupid, B) unnecessary, C) potentially quite useful, or D) the greatest idea since the invention of the wheel?

I will be checking this regularly, so feel free to add your thoughts.

PS- Hopefully this won't fail like all the other Spec blogs!