Author: tom

Facts on fonts

Which is better, serif or sans serif? Answers abound at Testy Copy Editors

Google bombs

Missed this one at Media Bistro last week: Sad to say, plugging Google in a story has become almost a telltale sign of sloppy reporting, a hack’s version of a Rolodex.

Nitpick of the day

From the story on the BaltSun’s new editor, in Editor & Publisher. The most unique move, creation of a demographics beat, is based on the paper’s need to improve coverage of the city’s changing population, the editor said. Two points:…

Those old, old newspapers

Maud links to a story saying author Nicholson Baker has penned an art book devoted to the old New York World. She also links to the American Newspaper Repository, which despite the unappetizing title has some very tasty examples of…

Why I hate pressure groups

Because of their idiotic insistence on their preferred terminology. From Clay’s post on the proper terminology on the gay-people-getting-married dustup. “Gay marriage” is a stupid thing to call it. Gay people can get married now. Just not to other gay…

ACES conference update

I’ve just learned that the Hyatt in Houston hosting the ACES conference has wireless Internet access, which means if you bring your WiFi-enabled laptop or PDA you should be able to blog the conference to your heart’s content. By the…

More on same-sex marriage amendment

Dan Froomkin of the Washington Post has a nice roundup of reporting/opinion. I met Froomkin once while interviewing for a job on the Post’s web site (note to boss: this was before you hired me) … very funny guy who…

More on the dangers of SUVs

People need to know this, even news people, so I’m going to harp on it. Somebody writes in to Sheila Lennon explaining why he prefers a truck to a car: Did the people who make these reports ever think that…

Here we go

Apparently the notion of marriage between people with out-of-the-mainstream sexual proclivities poses a grave threat to our Constitution, which must therefore be amended to protect us from these evil corroders of all that is good, just and right. Must be,…

SUVs: Unsafe at any speed

Sheila Lennon excerpts Malcolm Gladwell’s wonderful New Yorker piece on the dangers of SUVs. If you haven’t read the article, get busy. It’s a shocking expose of consumer stupidity and an industry eager to cash in on it.