Thursday, August 12, 2010

BACK AGAIN TO THE BLUNDER BOARD -- Message 3

A congenial note from Boston:

Many, many years ago when I was first out of college, I worked as a copyholder and later as a printer's proofreader at a venerable publishing house. I can honestly say that the galley proofs we received did not contain as many errors as you have found in the published book. What is surprising is how Father Cekada and his publisher did not catch many of the errors in the first proofs.

While visiting my great-grandchildren in Florida, I had a chance to thumb through a copy of WHH. I was amazed at the editorial slovenliness that almost leapt off each flyblown page. You will relish the following example: in the middle of p. 211, I found nine-fold, but then in the middle of the very next page I saw ninefold. I attribute the oversight to a very weak memory and the absence of a standard dictionary.

The Reader replies: We know of no style manual or dictionary (we checked six) that sanctions a hyphen between the cardinal number and the multiplicative suffix -fold. If that were the case, manifold would be spelled many-fold! We're sure this eagle-eyed correspondent also noticed the incorrect spelling of "three-fold" on p. 376.

Let's face it: Anthony Cekada is so smugly comfortable in his ignorance that he finds it unnecessary to seek professional assistance in an area in which he is clearly out of his depth. Moreover, the cult that is his real audience doesn't care a fig about good form.

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