Does anyone still use proofreading marks in the Age of Redline? I learned the whole symbology when I was a high-school journalism student; I remember loving the elegant carets and curlicues, the helpful "stet" (let it stand), the no-nonsense "sp" (spell out).
Sometimes, though, one would pine for symbols just a tad more explicit and relevant to the task at hand. Now, thanks to illustrator Eve Corbel, one has them: the lesser-known editing and proofreading marks. At last, a succinct way to tell a blowhard author "Please change your politics" or deliver a knuckle-rapping "Remove permanently from your lexicon."
Hat tip and a deep salaam to Wes Phillips, who blogs for Stereophile about all manner of interesting stuff, like 33 names of things you didn't know had names and this audio dictionary, which provides definitions, photos, and brief sound files for 347 instruments, including the alphorn, the fangufangu, and the sackbutt.
I had sackbutt once, but I got an ointment and it cleared right up.
Posted by: michael | December 20, 2006 at 09:27 AM