Thursday, April 30, 2009

Good stationary

I don't have trouble with the use of stationary and stationery; I just have to think before I speak ... or write.

 Stationery, whether it's good or not, is a stationary object. If you turn it into a paper airplane, the stationery is no longer stationary.

 So stationery involves writing materials, and stationary involves motion, or the lack of it.

 I looked it up and found that, in the 1700s “stationery wares” were sold by “stationers.” These people stayed in one place to sell their wares (thus making them stationary, in a way). They were frequently booksellers who also sold writing wares. At some point, the spellings diverged into stationery (meaning writing wares) and stationary (meaning fixed and unmoving).

 One web site says to remember paper (with the "e") to differentiate the two. Another says to use envelope to remember the "e".

 Remember: Never use good stationery while riding a stationary bike; you'll sweat it up.

✍️✍️✍️


ENTRIES FROM THE DOG BLOG

BLOG ENTRIES FROM THE AUTO RACING JOURNAL
(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)
(the book of great NASCAR stories)
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Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Go for best, not easy...

Copy editors have all sorts of things to remember. When I worked for newspapers years before the Internet existed, I had to remember what acronyms meant, such as AFL-CIO, UL. I even knew that The Bee Gees stood for The Brothers Gibb.

When I covered auto racing, I had to remember that Daytona International was a speedway, but Darlington was a raceway, and Charlotte was a motor speedway. It was the same way when I worked news side — I had to remember when I was talking about a railway, not a railroad.

Then there are the products that need to be uppercased, like Muzak, Frisbee, Xerox and Styrofoam. They're all products made by specific companies. The word Xerox has become part of the lexicon, and you might say that you need to xerox a copy of your letter, but you should spell it Xerox.

I even had to remember that not all champagnes are champagnes. Some very good bubbly wines are from places other than the Champagne region of France.

The trick then was to know where to look for information. When I worked in the sports department of a newspaper, people would call, asking this or that. One guy wanted to know when the NHL started play. I guessed around 1918 because of World War; it was the 1917-18 season, and I think we found it in a media guide.

Another guy asked what Rocky Bleier's first name was, but no one could find it in a Pittsburgh Steelers media guide. I looked in a Notre Dame football book — Rocky Bleier played for the Fighting Irish — and found Bob Bleier among the alumni of the late 1960s.

Yet another guy asked a question, and I told him I had no idea. He said: "Can't you just look in your computer?" "No," I said. "This isn't the Starship Enterprise computer, with all of the information from the known universe." He laughed and hung up.

Little did I know that we'd have something like the Enterprise computer just three or four years later, and it's gotten easier to find information with the Internet. I constantly use Google to make sure that a product is correctly spelled, with the correct case. It can also be a curse, if you happen to Google the wrong web site, with incorrect information.

So, copy editor, beware. Don't take the easiest answer for an answer. It may not be easy, but find the best source of information.
Entries from The Dog Blog
Blog entries from The Auto Racing Journal
(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)
(the book of great NASCAR stories)

More blog entries by Tom Gillispie

Anecdotes by Tom Gillispie

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