Mister Antithesis

“Some people are contrarians all the time. Others only when they are right.” — Me

22 September 2009 4:28am

unsustainable:

soupsoup:adamiss:Lincoln-Douglas(via xkcd)
Random grammar note: At my last proofreading job, our team of proofreaders worked with a giant reading textbook series aimed at 6-8th grade struggling readers. The content was great, but it was rough, as it sort of skipped the copyediting phase. In teams of two, we’d do first and second reads with our partners, hardly ever crossing over into another team’s chapter. In several chapters, there were debate exercises, referring to different techniques. That was how I confirmed that it was the Lincoln-Douglas debate (a kind of debating technique used for competitions, named after, you know, the Lincoln-Douglas debates). It was definitely not the “Lincoln-Douglass” debates. That was a typo. Unfortunately, a member of the other team saw the ‘Douglass’ and thought it referred to Frederick Douglass, one of the most incredible black men that ever lived (this was waaaaaay before the Biggity O), so that proofer didn’t fix it. So it made it to the next stage, and the next stage. Any fresh eyes that looked at it were sure that it’d been fact checked. This proofer actually went back in “fixed” my “Douglas” to make it “Douglass” in a late round. Into the textbook it would’ve gone, but I threw a tantrum about it when I just randomly saw it on a piece of paper and we went in and corrected all instances in the final print proof round.
I’m telling this story because:
1) Otherwise, I’ll forget it.2) This is about as exciting as making a proofreading catch gets.3) I totally saved the ass of Frederick Douglass! Or Stephen Douglas’ ass. One of them guys.4) Ass.

I understand this is supposed to be funny, but part of funny is being smart, and this is for nerds, after all. Why did you not fact check this comic? Errors:
1. The Lincoln-Douglas debates did not occur in 1860.
2. Douglas won them.
I could go into the actual history of this, but suffice it to say that I would prefer a caption which begins, “In later life, Stephen Douglas…” It’s still a lame joke. But where I come from, goal number one is to prevent ‘em laughing at you.

soupsoup:adamiss:Lincoln-Douglas(via xkcd)

Random grammar note: At my last proofreading job, our team of proofreaders worked with a giant reading textbook series aimed at 6-8th grade struggling readers. The content was great, but it was rough, as it sort of skipped the copyediting phase. In teams of two, we’d do first and second reads with our partners, hardly ever crossing over into another team’s chapter. In several chapters, there were debate exercises, referring to different techniques. That was how I confirmed that it was the Lincoln-Douglas debate (a kind of debating technique used for competitions, named after, you know, the Lincoln-Douglas debates). It was definitely not the “Lincoln-Douglass” debates. That was a typo. Unfortunately, a member of the other team saw the ‘Douglass’ and thought it referred to Frederick Douglass, one of the most incredible black men that ever lived (this was waaaaaay before the Biggity O), so that proofer didn’t fix it. So it made it to the next stage, and the next stage. Any fresh eyes that looked at it were sure that it’d been fact checked. This proofer actually went back in “fixed” my “Douglas” to make it “Douglass” in a late round. Into the textbook it would’ve gone, but I threw a tantrum about it when I just randomly saw it on a piece of paper and we went in and corrected all instances in the final print proof round.

I’m telling this story because:

1) Otherwise, I’ll forget it.
2) This is about as exciting as making a proofreading catch gets.
3) I totally saved the ass of Frederick Douglass! Or Stephen Douglas’ ass. One of them guys.
4) Ass.

I understand this is supposed to be funny, but part of funny is being smart, and this is for nerds, after all. Why did you not fact check this comic? Errors:

1. The Lincoln-Douglas debates did not occur in 1860.

2. Douglas won them.

I could go into the actual history of this, but suffice it to say that I would prefer a caption which begins, “In later life, Stephen Douglas…” It’s still a lame joke. But where I come from, goal number one is to prevent ‘em laughing at you.

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