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Filed under: Letters & Challenges Tagged: copy editing, David Denby, magazines, Peter Schjeldahl
Ed O’Connell of Martha’s Vineyard asks this provocative question:
I’m a New Yorker reader of limited tenure with a question that may expose an embarrassing degree of naivete and/or paranoia but, of course, I’m compelled to ask: is there an inside joke at the magazine about using the same unusual word in different articles throughout any one issue? For example, in the 1/29/07 issue, Schjeldahl on the Art World and Denby on Current Cinema both use the fairly unusual word “deracinated.” I have noticed this in past issues from time to time with other unusual words and have wondered if this is the work of a playful editor or merely coincidence. Thanks in advance for any insight.
It goes without saying that no one on the magazine’s staff would ever declare this to be true on the record, even if such twins were planned; after all, word repetitions are one of the things copy departments try to prevent. (In the brief and surreal, though existentially crucial, period in which I freelanced at Lucky, searching for “reps”—multiple instances of “ladylike” and “foxy,” most likely—was one of my oddly enjoyable tasks.)
Still…things like this, bets and dares and japes, have been known to occur in the magazine world. Perhaps there will be an update. Wait and see.
Send letters to the editor to letters@emdashes.com. As always, nothing is published without permission, so rest easy, paranoiacs.
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Hello! We're a small band of culture writers, editors, and artists based in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Emdashes, which spent its formative years as a New Yorker blog, is our collection of conversations—mostly civilized—about magazines, movies, design, punctuation, and other things that stir us.
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Dashes, some say, “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like an em dash itself—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.
Emdashes, founded in 2004, is written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. All posts before October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.
The site was designed by House of Pretty with illustrations by Jesse R. Ewing.
Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (author of our web comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The Emdashes pencil logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
Other writing by Emily Gordon
- Reviews: theater writing (for Time Out Chicago)
- Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World)
- Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, bon vivant, New Yorker founding father (for Print)
- Slide show: the Coney Island Mermaid Parade (for NYCgo.com)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Homage: Celebrating lindy-hop legend Frankie Manning (for NYCgo.com)
- Inquiry: Does a New Republic redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
- Interviews: four up-and-coming designers under 30 (for Print)
- Profile: novelist and dance critic Laura Jacobs (for Newsday)
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Comments
“Paranoiacs”? I hope you’re not referring to me!
No indeed, C! If you only knew the kinds of skittish emails I get, you’d think I was Woodstein and Hersh rolled into one.
I love this question.
I think ‘deracinated’ might be French for ‘root beer,’ seriously.