It’s been more than three months. There’s just so much on my editor’s plate that I have not had time to update my blog. I’ve been swamped with mostly academic files that need polishing to make them clear, concise, and coherent.
And believe me when I say some of them could use a really good buffing.
1) In a mathematics book for children, the author has inserted an instruction for the book illustrator to draw four octopuses with 10 (!) legs each. Ever heard of “tentopuses”?
Of course we know that an octopus has eight appendages–six are believed to function as legs and two as arms.
2) At first pass, this statement from a proposal paper didn’t make much sense.
“In addition, council must have a legal personality because it may interfere with the execution of the budget. Assuming promote acceptance of such donations, it is desirable to obtain a legal status in the treatment of public benefit corporation.”
(My thinking cap goes into overdrive: The legal personality interferes with the execution? Assuming promote? Focus, focus, focus!)
Took quite a while to discern that the author probably meant this:
“In addition, the council must have a legal personality, because its absence may interfere with budget execution. It must have a legal status as a public welfare corporation to justify its acceptance of donations.”
Who says an editor’s job is boring?
Salt & Pepper 