Guilty culprit

From TV: I was watching a college football game on Saturday, and some lineman was caught for holding. The camera panned to a lineman, and an announcer said, "There's the guilty culprit."

Has a culprit ever been not guilty?

You can't blame the announcer, though; he doesn't have time to edit his work.

Found in a novel: One of my favorite authors likes to use the word diffident. From context, it seemed to mean "uncertain." I wasn't sure — I'd never use it in a sentence — so I looked it up.

Merriam-Webster online defines diffident as lacking confidence, hesitant, reserved or unassertive. That could be uncertain, so I guess I was diffident about that word.

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EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com  TWITTER: EDITORatWORK

MORE EDITOR@WORK BLOG ENTRIES

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• 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

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• 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

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• Days with rainbows

• A desperate writer working in the dark

• Yer OUTTA there!

ENTRIES FROM THE DOG BLOG

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(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)

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