Cumbersome attribution

Needs editing: Found on the NY Times' web site: Ryan Church was originally in the starting lineup Sunday but was scratched because of nausea, the Mets’ vice president for media relations, Jay Horwitz, said. They might change that to ...because of nausea, said Jay Horwitz, the Mets' vice president for media relations. The Times' way is cumbersome.

Spell checks: I just found the word witholding in a book I'm editing. It should be withholding.

Say what? I assume that incentivised comes from the word incentive. It means offered incentives, motivated, according to an online dictionary. ... I came across the word nees and couldn't find it in the dictionary. Using context, I re-read the paragraph and realized the writer meant need.

Big words: I came across re-conceptualisation. It's the British spelling, and it doesn't need a hyphen. And it's w-a-y too long. Rethinking might work better.

Light work: I love the derivation of words. Take photography. From the Greek words photos ("light") and graphos ("drawing"). It means "drawing with light." ... The end of Western civilization as we know it is upon us; Kodak recently retired Kodachrome film after a 74-year run (1935-2009). The reason? Kodachrome represented "less than a fraction of one percent" of Kodak's total sales of still-picture films. Kodak derives most of its revenue from commercial and consumer digital businesses.

The first thing I thought of was Paul Simon's song "Kodachrome," and I suspect a few Kodak people did the same. As the song said:

"I got a Ni-kon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama don't take my Kodachrome away."

They did.

Contact: I can be reached at tgilli52@gmail.com or nc3022@yahoo.com. Also, my Twitter handle is EDITORatWORK.

More EDITOR@WORK blog entries

• You really DO need an editor

• Reminders for would-be novelists

• What I do when I'm editing

• What I charge (it's a deal) and what I edit

• Slogging through the Internet

• J-school: More eyes on your stories

• J-school: Go out and learn

• Rookie mistakes for magazine writers

Entries from The Dog Blog

• Katie cried

• Growl and pull

• 12 years with Lady

• ... said the spider to ...

• The Dog Diary (2014)

• YIP! YIP! The stereo-sound huskies

• What Lady and Michael Jackson had in common

Blog entries from The Auto Racing Journal

• Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr.

(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)

• Then Junior Said to Jeff...

(the book of great NASCAR stories)

• My best day as a sports writer

• Jeff Gordon's milk toast to Dale Earnhardt

• Wayne Auton: A life in racing

More blog entries by Tom Gillispie

• Resume for a writer and editor

• An editor's views on powerful writing

• Advice for be and would-be novelists

• Links to TG's stories online

• Favorite quotes

• What I do when I'm editing

Anecdotes by Tom Gillispie

• Wipeout at Death Valley

• Days with rainbows

• A desperate writer working in the dark

• Yer outta there!