Saturday, March 16, 2013

You know you're a Britcom fan when . . . .

March 16, 2013

A version of this appeared last year on tellyspotting.org. Here's the original . . . .
 
You know you’re a Britcom fan when . . .
You see a chocolate fountain and want to take a to-the-shoulders dive into it, (Geraldine, Vicar of Dibley)

You see Brussels sprouts and want to have a sprout-eating contest, (the Hortons, Vicar of Dibley)

You get hungry for a custard tart in times of stress, (Lionel, As Time Goes By)

You start referring to bugs as "creepy crawlies," (Nora Batty, Last of the Summer Wine)

You say "I’m free" when someone asks if you’re busy and you’re not, (Mr. Humphries, Are You Being Served?)

You think purple is a perfectly fine hair color, (Mrs. Slocombe, Are You Being Served?)

You remember to stack the dishwasher from the back, (Lionel, As Time Goes By)

You hog the chocolate Hob Nobs, (unnamed police officers, Thin Blue Line)

You make visitors to your home take off their shoes and remind them to not brush against your walls, (Hyacinth, Keeping Up Appearances)

You listen to the shipping forecasts, (Mrs. Bale, As Time Goes By)

You go ahead and eat the chips that fall down into your shirt, (Daisy, Keeping Up Appearances)

You always buy products that have a royal warrant or crest on them, (Hyacinth, Keeping Up Appearances)

You describe snacks as "light refreshments," (Hyacinth, Keeping Up Appearances)

You spend the equivalent of 15 pence on Christmas or, alternatively, complain if your tree isn’t the right height, (the Goods, Margot Letbetter, The Good Life)

You automatically roll your eyes toward the ceiling when you say the word "boardroom," (Mr. Rumboldt, Are You Being Served?)

You wear a waistcoat over your cardigan, (Norman Clegg, Last of the Summer Wine)

You wear your hair in brush rollers outside the house, (Nora Batty, Last of the Summer Wine)

You can spell "memoirs" without having to look in the dictionary, (Onslow, Keeping Up Appearances)

You change from pajamas to clothes and shoes while driving to the dentist, (Mr. Bean, Mr. Bean)

You beat your car with a tree branch when it breaks down, (Basil, Fawlty Towers)

You hold candlelight suppers for your friends, (Hyacinth, Keeping Up Appearances)

You sweep the steps every morning, (Nora Batty, Last of the Summer Wine)

You take imaginary vacations with film stars, (Tom, Waiting For God)

You are always "unanimous in that," (Mrs. Slocombe, Are You Being Served?)

You play "Poohsticks," (Audrey, To the Manor Born)

You answer any question with a sentence beginning "No, no, no, no . . . ." (Jim, Vicar of Dibley)
 
 
 

Friday, March 8, 2013

Copyediting and the Audience

Copyediting and the Audience

One thing you need to keep in mind when copyediting is the audience of the piece that you are editing. Is it a piece for anyone? Or is it targeted to a specific audience? All writing needs to be clear, but there are situations in which you must leave in industry-specific language or other idioms to ensure correct communication. If you're copyediting something and find unfamiliar terms or idioms, or words used in an unfamiliar way, ask the author before deleting or rewriting!

Friday, March 1, 2013

Back to the blog!

It's back to the blog! I've decided to make time for it again.
I'm not sure that I'll post more than once a week, though, at least for a while.
And I'm not going to focus on copyediting. I still LOVE copyediting, and get to copyedit for work, but I've written a lot about it already so I will also include other things, such as writing and observations. Inspired by From the Library of C.S. Lewis, I will also include short excerpts from favorite books on topics that include travel/diff places, food/cooking, culture/society, literature, friendship, family, work, school, life . . . .
So I'll begin with a description of Paris by Hannah Arendt:

"It is the uniform facades, lining the streets like inside walls, that make one feel more physically sheltered in this city than in any other . . . In Paris a stranger feels at home because he can inhabit the city the way he livesin his own four walls. And just as one inhabits an apartment, and makes it comfortable, by living in it instead of just using it for sleeping, eating, and working, so one inhabits a city by strolling through it without aim or purpose, with one's stay secored by the countless cafes which line the streets and past which the life oft he city, the flow of pedestrians. moves along" (Arendt 21).

Arendt, Hannah, ed. "Introduction Walter Benjamin:  1892-1940." Illuminations, Walter Benjamin.
New York:  Schocken Books, 1968.

Bell, James Stuart and Anthony Palmer Dawson. From the Library of C.S. Lewis. Colorado Springs, Colorado:  WaterBrook Press, 2004.