EDITOR@WORK: TV advertisements

FOUND ON TV: I was watching an ad today, and someone was talking about "our very innovative product." I've talked about this before; by and large, "very" is unnecessary.

And it's even more unnecessary here. "Very innovative" is like "very unique." If it's innovative, you don't need very. It's innovative.

"Our innovative product" will do fine.

PARTIAL HEADLINE FOUND ONLINE: Today in Media History
Normally, I wouldn't uppercase media history — no reason to. But this is a regular column, so uppercasing Media History makes sense here.

EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com BLUESKY: PROFILE

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

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!

ENTRIES FROM THE DOG BLOG

• Katie cried

• Growl and pull

• 13-plus years with my dog 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

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Flying off the handle

Bags fly free: My wife and I were just watching a Southwest Airlines ad on TV that said that bags fly free. There are several ways to look at that, and at least two are bad. When I was a kid, older women were often called old bags, although rarely before their faces. That gives bags fly free a new meaning. My other thought was that, if bags are flying free, they ought to tie them down.

I realize that's nitpicking, but people have nitpicked my headlines to death. I once wrote a headline about John Cook being tied for the lead in the Buick Open golf tournament. The headline was "Cook, three others tied in Buick." Naturally, someone visualized four guys tied up and gagged in the back of a blue Buick. I had a hard time living that one down.

At the same newspaper, I once opened up the paper to a two-page ad. There were six words in the ad, and it was meant to be read left-to-right. I noticed immediately, though, that if you read just the left page, it was a sexual suggestion. We called the ad people -- we were putting out the live newspaper -- and the chief ad salesman laughed it off. The company advertising with us had signed off on the ad, and there wasn't anything we could do. It had been printed days in advance.

Thought for today: Doesn't "expecting the unexpected" make the unexpected expected?

EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com BLUESKY: PROFILE