Uge the Times to Hire More Copyeditors

On Friday a front-page headline in The New York Times (D.C. edition) announced, "Warning Uged on Stimulants Like Ritalin." Today the lead story, by Robert McFadden, says the weekend's blizzard came "after two months of humbug winter." While it's possible that McFadden thinks the season is some sort of con job, it's more likely that he meant humdrum, as an adjacent caption describes it, or possibly ho-hum. Ritalin may be overused elsewhere, but it seems they could use a little more of it the Times newsroom.

Comments

[joe]

No, humbug works. Fake. Phoney. It's been warm and there's been very little snow: a humbug winter.

[Douglas Fletcher]

This is uge.

[Tanya]

"Uge the Times to hire more copyeditors."

Oh, sweet irony.

[David]

I don't think it's ironic when it's intentional.

[Redundant copy editor]

It's due to the rise of spelling and grammar checking software. The LA Times has the same proplem.

As we used to say, the reporters and their editors pay no attention to detail. That and the younger reporters are functionally illiterate.

[Tanya]

I don't think it's ironic when it's intentional.

Ironic, then, that I opened my yap without properly reading the first sentence following the [what I now understand to be a humourous] headline.

Ignore me, carry on.

[jp]

I'm with Redundant copy editor. I used to be a copy editor, back in the days when books and articles were actually edited and proofread. (Imagine such a thing!) Now I'm a lawyer and have to deal with illiterate young associates.

And the young people! Why do they seem never to have heard of the idea that you should re-read something before you hand it in?

[Reason Pillow Girl]

Wait, what's teh problem?

[Isaac Bartram]

I have tried to get it across to my coworkers (most of whom seem to be unable to spell) that spell checking software is not a replacement for knowing how to spell. But it's about about the same as trying to get them to understand that quality control review is not part of the production process.

I get the feeling that spelling has not been taught in schools since about 1965 or so.

[Speller]

Since when does Spell checking software change "urge" to "uge?"

[King of the Swamp Castle]

She's got uge...tracts of land!

[wellfellow]

Isaac,

You're about about right on that one!

[dhex]

get offa my lawn!

[Ed]

I blame hip-hop.

[rick]

humbug is just as appropriate as the other listed options. buy a dictionary.

[jp]

get offa my lawn!

And turn down that damn music while you're at it!

[Redneck]

get offa my lawn!

Ima fixin' to.

[Mr. F. Le Mur]

"Humbug" means whatever the NYT says it means.

[sage]

I dunno, from what I read the word "humbug" seems to imply "deception" more than "fake" or "phony." Who did the deceiving? Perhaps the NYT own weather people.

[Adam]

just for the taste of it.............diet coke! sniff sniff sniff.