Which edit? The edit.

My email signature, various online bios, all describe me as a writer and editor. And OK, yes, I get what this phrase — “the edit” — means, but it still gives me a bit of a facial tic:

It’s the definite article with “edit” that bugs me. One minute you’re just a badly paid pen for hire, getting an email or text reading, “Please address my edits,” or “I’ve done my edit,” and the next, cookies are getting edited.

Edit, in these usages, means, “a pre-selected group of something, made by people who know more than you about whatever’s being selected.” The Saks edit:

A whole store, called just…you know:

Note the copy block. The Edit is a store with not just an owner, but a curator. You see that word a lot in Edits, although as someone who’s edited, or been edited, my whole career, I’ve never had a curator, too. (Just an editor!) Maybe I’ll try that on my next note to whoever I’m tasked with editing next: “I am done curating your copy. See the edit, attached.”

It’s just one of those language things. One day you wake up, and no one says, “I gave you a present.” They say, “I’ve gifted you with this sweater.” Sometimes past tense just needs a kick in the ass. Or it’s “the U.S. team” one day, and “Team USA” the next. “Get well soon, Adam” yields to “AdamStrong,” justlikethat.

I blame hashtags.

You can tell what kind of day Tuesday was. Sitting around, waiting for phone calls, wishing I were already retired and could bore people with these sorts of observations full-time.

So I leave you with a little bloggage. Matt Gaetz tried for a blanket pardon:

Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, was one of President Donald J. Trump’s most vocal allies during his term, publicly pledging loyalty and even signing a letter nominating the president for the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the final weeks of Mr. Trump’s term, Mr. Gaetz sought something in return. He privately asked the White House for blanket pre-emptive pardons for himself and unidentified congressional allies for any crimes they may have committed, according to two people told of the discussions.

Ha ha ha. That guy.

OK, hopes for a better Wednesday, here. I hope it is The Edit of good days.

Posted at 7:49 am in Popculch |
 

69 responses to “Which edit? The edit.”

  1. Mark 0 said on April 7, 2021 at 8:52 am

    I gave up language peeving after reading Language Log for a while. I might still feel the urge, but it’s like complaining about the weather.

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  2. Mark P said on April 7, 2021 at 8:53 am

    Stupid iPhone keyboard. Who put the O next to the P?

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  3. Julie Robinson said on April 7, 2021 at 9:31 am

    Amy at The Edit could use a good copy editor. The root word curate is used twice in eight lines, there’s a classic it’s/its error, and the common compliment/complement confusion. 4 is used instead of four, and there are also several punctuation issues. Oh, Amy.

    But then, professional journalists didn’t catch this error on the front page of our newspaper this morning: “Komets kooking to put together full-game effort.”

    Signed, Little Miss Picky-Picky.

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  4. Suzanne said on April 7, 2021 at 9:37 am

    Now that I am fully vaccinated, I am struggling with returning to all the things I realize I haven’t missed the past year. I have been in our church choir for years and years and they are starting up practice again and I realize I have not missed it once during the past year. Same with a few other volunteer type activities that I simply have not missed. I’ve been doing church online on Sunday and can’t really say I miss going in person.
    Is anyone else feeling this way? Or have I really turned in to a curmudgeon?

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  5. LAMary said on April 7, 2021 at 10:08 am

    I’m bugged by words like impactful. Did that word exist five years ago?

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  6. Connie said on April 7, 2021 at 10:25 am

    In the last comments Suzanne referred to a Doctorow article about being haunted by an algorithm, which used stillbirth as an example.

    Trust me, I know from experience that the internet wasn’t needed for that. In the mid 80s those pregnancy magazines knew exactly when my baby was due and how old it would have been each month for the next year. And they sold that info to many mailing lists. The original magazine used an odd mispelling of my last name (q)! So it was pretty easy to tell. There were a couple of months there where my husband went to the mail box and sorted the mail.

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  7. Julie Robinson said on April 7, 2021 at 10:30 am

    Church that isn’t on my TV, with me in my jammies and cup of tea? Kind of hard to imagine. I don’t miss all the meetings I used to go to, and in Orlando will look for volunteer gigs without those. I’ll appreciate a fresh start in that way.

    There is a tiny baby squirrel outside my patio right now. It’s shiny and fluffy and WE WANTS IT, OUR PRECIOUS. Of course I’d never dream of trying to touch a wild animal, but darn it’s cute.

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  8. Jakash said on April 7, 2021 at 11:35 am

    Suzanne,

    I keep seeing articles about people who feel just like you do, and not just about things that they now realize they can happily do without, but even returning to things they like. I saw somebody somewhere quoted as saying they don’t think they’ll ever eat in a restaurant again!

    I certainly am experiencing an odd mixture of excitement about being able to do things and trepidation about what new form “normal” is going to take.

    As for church, we’re not regular church-goers, but have taken the opportunity during Lent to sample various services online, both local and far-flung. Uh, I’m sure it’s blasphemous and outrageous, but being able to fast-forward through a Mass — well, it’s a new Covid-provided option that is pretty beguiling…

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  9. Deborah said on April 7, 2021 at 12:22 pm

    The thing I miss the most is travel but I certainly don’t miss airports.

    I’m sitting in my dermatologist’s waiting room which has a stunning view out the window of the top of the Tribune building. I don’t usually get to see it from this perspective. I’m getting a prescription for some cream to burn off my precancerous sun spots on my forehead. When I am using it my face is going to look like a pizza, so I’m not going to start using it until I get to NM. I will be better about wearing a hat when I’m out in the sun, but most of this is a result of childhood in Miami, pre-sunscreen.

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  10. Jeff Borden said on April 7, 2021 at 12:54 pm

    I lean toward being a curmudgeon on most days, but after four years of the Orange King and more than a year of coronavirus quarantine, I think that element within me has grown muscular.

    Case in point: There is a young couple living across the street from us in a $1.5-million house. He’s 41, she’s 31 and they have a daughter less than a year old. They bring their dog to the park along with the rest of us and conspicuously refuse to wear masks. They also are anti-vaxxers, who insist their daughter will never be poked with a needle and neither will they. They were both holding court last night about the “discrimination” they face because they won’t get the vaccine and how unfair a vaccine passport would be to folks like them. After reminding them my generation was saved from polio by a vaccine, I suggested there were consequences for all actions including theirs. I bit my tongue until it bled not to say they are being selfish jerks who expect everyone around them to take the shot so they don’t. I’m still pissed today, but am trying not to become the stereotypical angry old man. But, damn, where did this suspicion and anger about science and medicine come from?

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  11. Deborah said on April 7, 2021 at 1:04 pm

    I have a niece who won’t get the vaccine for herself or her family, she has 3 young kids and her husband is a high school coach/assistant principal. I think it’s so selfish, but I haven’t said anything to her about it. Her sisters think she’s nuts, so I’ll leave it to them to set her straight.

    Speaking of vaxes do any others of you oldsters remember the thing you got on your upper arm that left a scar for ever and ever? They don’t do that anymore, I don’t think, but what the heck was that for? I don’t remember, it was so long ago.

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  12. susan said on April 7, 2021 at 1:06 pm

    Deborah, that was vaccination against smallpox.

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  13. basset said on April 7, 2021 at 1:08 pm

    Smallpox, wasn’t it?

    And, on a totally different topic… anyone here been to Isle Royale? Sure seems like a lot of trouble to arrange. Would be worth it to see the moose and the northern lights, though.

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  14. Sherri said on April 7, 2021 at 1:19 pm

    As others have said, that vaccine scar is smallpox, which the US stopped routinely administering to children in 1972.

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  15. Connie said on April 7, 2021 at 1:45 pm

    Bassett, I have seen the northern lights in the lower peninsula. Once.

    I went to Sleeping Bear almost yearly from 1960 to 2015. Sometime in the early 90s we were awakened at 1 am by a phone call, at the cottage, bil was calling to say get up and look. Always glad he did.

    Also, while my smallpox vax scar is on my upper arm, my husband’s is on his inner thigh.

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  16. Peter said on April 7, 2021 at 1:57 pm

    Basset, I have not been to Isle Royale, but I do plan on going one day, and a good friend of mine kayaked around the island on his honeymoon.

    Here’s my problem – sure, there’s moose on the island and the northern lights look great, but there’s moose on the mainland next to the island, and you can see the northern lights there as well. And while the mainland next to Isle Royale has more people, it’s not Manhattan. On the other hand, you drive all the way up there, why not go the last few miles and go to the island.

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  17. basset said on April 7, 2021 at 3:30 pm

    Just learned today that the sightseeing tours won’t run this summer, which is probably enough to keep us from going this year. Flying from Nashville to Houghton costs roughly the same as flying from Houghton out to the island, and the boat schedule gives you a choice of staying over one night without time to see anything or staying a minimum of four nights.

    Our plan before life happened was to drive a small RV to Alaska once I retired, which may not happen for health reasons… second choice for this summer may be to drive the Mississippi River scenic route up to Minnesota.

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  18. Deborah said on April 7, 2021 at 3:49 pm

    I had to get something at Target today and I realized I don’t like going to Target anymore. Either it changed during the pandemic or I did. It was the nicer Target too, the one in the wonderful Carson, Pierre Scott building in the loop. I used to work upstairs in the building after it was renovated into office space.

    I also went to the Walgreens near us to pick up my face cream prescription and of course my stupid insurance doesn’t cover it. It’s $269 and that’s the generic. I have the worst Medicare prescription plan, it hasn’t covered one single thing I’ve needed. Thankfully I don’t need that many prescriptions.

    But the good news is I found caffeine free Diet Coke! I’m not a big soda drinker, my usual go to is diet root beer, but boy howdy that Coke tasted good after all those years.

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  19. Mark P said on April 7, 2021 at 4:24 pm

    Is there a good Medicare prescription drug plan? We haven’t found one. It makes me mad every time I read the monthly payout report.

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  20. Deborah said on April 7, 2021 at 5:20 pm

    The ravages of time https://www.demilked.com/time-warns-out-things/

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  21. David C said on April 7, 2021 at 5:41 pm

    I really enjoyed looking at those photos Deborah. Speaking of editing #48 could have used an editor who knew the difference between viscose and viscous.

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  22. ninja3000 said on April 7, 2021 at 5:46 pm

    Nancy, it’s not the fault of hashtags. It’s just plain ol’ lack of imagination. Easier to copy other folk and not use your own brain, innit? Especially writers/editors at relatively well-paying magazines. And every mag and newspaper in the country have fired all their copy editors. It saves them money, and besides, who needs ’em? Ask me how I know…

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  23. Scout said on April 7, 2021 at 5:47 pm

    I think we will be stuck with covidiots for all of eternity. The last four years combined with the past year of pandemic has turned me into a curmudgeon for sure. I have zero patience and no fucks left to give for the willfully ignorant.

    I’ve been hearing rumors that the vaccine affects fertility, and this has come from different people of various political ideologies. A quick search got me a bunch of articles debunking it, including this one: https://www.webmd.com/vaccines/covid-19-vaccine/news/20210112/why-covid-vaccines-are-falsely-linked-to-infertility

    Yesterday there was an altercation at the TJ’s where I shop. Apparently the anti-mask moron was under the impression that Gov Douchey permits him to spread his germs wherever he wants to even if the business has a mask policy in place, going so far as to fake cough on someone because he was so angry. I thought doing that was considered aggravated assault during a pandemic, but what do I know? It should be. https://www.azfamily.com/news/continuing_coverage/coronavirus_coverage/heated-exchange-at-phoenix-trader-joes-after-customer-refuses-to-wear-mask/article_2521f754-9748-11eb-b46f-5fa20fc83a41.html

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  24. Julie Robinson said on April 7, 2021 at 6:45 pm

    Target used to be a favorite haunt. Matt’s preschool was in a church in the same shopping center as the store. All that stuff I bought ended up as junk in the basement that we had to get rid of later. Last time I was in Orlando we were out of hand soap, but did they have a single bar or bottle in the entire store? I even chased down an employee, and they did not. Infatuation over.

    My second Covid vaccine was today, then Matt texted he was able to get a walk-in J&J after work today. Sarah gets her second shot Monday, and this mama is feeling much more peace of mind.

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  25. Dave said on April 7, 2021 at 6:54 pm

    Today is two weeks since our second shot and we celebrated by going out to a local diner and having a meal, the first time we have been in the place to sit down and eat, a place we formerly frequented regularly up until a year ago. Other than about three takeout meals, we’ve not been there. Oh, and we both had a Coke.

    My anti-vaccer son upsets me so much that I gnash my teeth, what else can I do. He has sent his mother and I so many e-mails telling us not to get the vaccination, sends us studies by folks we always look up to find they’re dubious debunked scientific outcasts.

    His parent in-laws recently got vaccinated and both had some minor issues, fevers, headaches, so he told us about that. We don’t even bother to tell him we already did both doses with the only bad result being sore arms.

    I don’t think he’s ever going to be convinced otherwise, I can only hope that our three children have nothing dire in their futures because that is a concern. He thinks keeping them healthy is good enough, much as Jeff Borden’s neighbor’s daughter.

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  26. Dave said on April 7, 2021 at 6:59 pm

    In the last paragraph it should say, “Our three grandchildren”.

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  27. beb said on April 7, 2021 at 7:43 pm

    Mercifully I had not seen or heard of “The Edit” before this. Sounds extremely pretensious which would seem to be the point.

    I’m curious what Deborah means when she says she doesn’t like going to Target anymore? Has their selection of products gotten worse? Or has it been re-organized in a confused and confusing jumble. Have the people at Target gotten obnoxious or is it too many people in the store. Our family used to go to Target regularly before the pandemic. Haven’t since. It’s just curious to hear someone say they don’t like going there anymore.

    We miss going to restaurants and though my wife and I have had the two shots we’re still hesitant about going out to eat until the virus is better under control.

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  28. Colleen said on April 7, 2021 at 8:11 pm

    My Facebook feed is full of spring breakers and people rejoicing in the end of the Indiana mask mandate. It’s like people have said ” screw it. I’m doing whatever I want.” Of course, that’s been par for the course here in Florida. However, most businesses require masks, stupid governor be damned.

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  29. LAMary said on April 7, 2021 at 8:54 pm

    An online anti vaxxer I was engaging with said there were over 6000 deaths from the vaccine and encouraged me to check the CDC website. She also said that the ingredients were secret. I checked the CDC site. No mention of any deaths. Lists of ingredients for Pfizer, Moderna and J&J vaccines were there.

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  30. Little Bird said on April 7, 2021 at 9:43 pm

    I finally have an appointment! Friday! I’m so fucking relieved! I’m so happy!

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  31. Suzanne said on April 7, 2021 at 10:12 pm

    The lie that the vaccine kills people is definitely going around. I have talked to 2 people in as many weeks who told me they heard insurance companies wouldn’t pay out the death benefits on the life insurance policies of the thousands of people who die from the COVID vaccine. Naturally, these are the same people who claim that COVID-19 itself doesn’t kill anyone.

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  32. Deborah said on April 7, 2021 at 10:40 pm

    Really good news for me, LB said she got news that she can get her first shot Friday, she thinks it’s Moderna but not sure.

    Beb, I’m not sure how to answer that. The Target I went to just seemed junky-er. I didn’t find what I was looking for and everything was jumbled and disorganized. But when I think back on past Target trips I’ve taken it doesn’t seem much different. I think it’s me that has changed. The pandemic has changed me, not Target. I expect more and better when I do venture out. Like it’s not worth going unless it’s better, or something.

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  33. Jakash said on April 7, 2021 at 10:49 pm

    How’s this for fear-mongering click-bait?

    “BREAKING: 246 fully vaccinated Michiganders got COVID-19, 3 died, state reports”

    Some less than scary context within the article: “‘That breaks down to 0.0144% of those who have gotten the vaccine have come down with a breakthrough infection,’ Thomas said. ‘So that means that the vaccine is 99.99% effective in preventing infection.

    ‘And then, when you say three people have died after getting fully vaccinated, that means that 0.00176% of those vaccinated have died. That means that the vaccine is 99.999% effective in preventing death.'”

    https://twitter.com/freep/status/1379433473140617220

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  34. basset said on April 7, 2021 at 11:30 pm

    Haven’t been to Target in awhile, Rural King is more my speed.

    A pre-pandemic tradition in our circle of friends will come back to life on Saturday: gather at someone’s house, bring your guitar or fiddle or whatever and maybe a dish to pass, sit in a circle, play and sing. Been missing that.

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  35. basset said on April 7, 2021 at 11:31 pm

    Haven’t been to Target in awhile, Rural King is more my speed.

    A pre-pandemic tradition in our circle of friends will come back to life this Sunday: gather at someone’s house, bring your guitar or fiddle or whatever and maybe a dish to pass, sit in a circle, play and sing. Been missing that.

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  36. Mark P said on April 7, 2021 at 11:58 pm

    The people who say 6000 people died after getting one of the COVID vaccines may be misinterpreting actual data. There is a database that is reported to when someone who had the vaccine dies, no matter what the cause of death. So if someone gets the vaccine and dies from an unrelated cause, the death goes into the database. Experts know that database is useless for assessing deaths caused by the vaccine. Idiots do not.

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  37. Sherri said on April 8, 2021 at 12:50 am

    Joe Manchin writes an OpEd in the Washington Post declaring that he will never weaken the filibuster. He might as well stand on the steps of the Capitol shouting “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!” He’s every bit as committed to white supremacy.

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  38. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 8, 2021 at 6:47 am

    To “gather at someone’s house, bring your guitar or fiddle or whatever and maybe a dish to pass, sit in a circle, play and sing” is what all the work and sacrifice and deferred satisfaction has been about, I’d say. To be able to do just that. May it be a joy, Basset!

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  39. Julie Robinson said on April 8, 2021 at 10:16 am

    basset, I get a warm feeling just reading about your gathering, how marvelous. Deborah and Little Bird, yay! I totally get how you feel.

    Here’s a new phrase I learned today: Metal AF. I think I understand what it means, but I’d never heard it before and saw it in three different places just this morning.

    Sherri, Heather Cox Richardson’s essay last night said the same thing as you, with deep research.

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  40. Jeff Borden said on April 8, 2021 at 10:22 am

    The latest on the playboy of the Florida Panhandle. . .MATT GAETZ!

    https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/4/8/2024941/-Matt-Gaetz-took-trip-to-Bahamas-where-flight-hotel-and-women-were-provided-by-ganjapreneur

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  41. Dave Kobiela said on April 8, 2021 at 12:03 pm

    More disturbing news from the anti-vaxxer camp. My daughter, who is retired Army nurse, has been volunteering to give Covid vaccines in Park City, Utah. She just told us that on her shift this morning, she had a large number of no shows. The Dr. working with her says they have been recently been getting 20-30 no shows each day. Doctor believes there is an active anti-vaxxer campaign to sign up then no-show in order to prevent others from getting a shot.
    Disturbing to think this may be happening, but sadly not far-fetched.

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  42. Deborah said on April 8, 2021 at 12:10 pm

    Dave K, that’s pure evil. Wow how can people who do that sleep at night. Unconscionable.

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  43. Julie Robinson said on April 8, 2021 at 12:28 pm

    Awful, awful, awful, both Gaetz and the anti-vaxxers. My shot was at 2:20 and the nurse said they had vaccine expiring at 3:00. However, there was a big crowd walking in both as I arrived at and left, so I think they made the deadline.

    Sherri, I didn’t mean to say that Dr. Richardson had done research and you didn’t, so I hope it isn’t interpreted that way. What I meant to say is that many people have done the research, as I know you have, and it is good that people like her are explaining it in clear and simple terms. I have many friends who are not academic, but they read her work and get her points, and I think that’s very helpful for clearing through all the noise.

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  44. David C said on April 8, 2021 at 12:42 pm

    The anti-vaxxers prattle on about freedom but if they’re really trying to sabotage others getting the vaccine when they want it their concept of freedom is pretty warped.

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  45. Sherri said on April 8, 2021 at 12:45 pm

    Julie, I understood exactly what you meant. Dr. Richardson has a much larger voice than I do, and I’m happy that people like her are being clear and direct in calling out support for the filibuster as white supremacy. Manchin’s defense of it as protecting small states is nonsense, and should be exposed.

    None of the counter-majoritarian measures in our system are about protecting small states, or about protecting rural areas. Vermont and Wyoming are the smallest states, yet seldom make common cause. California has a larger rural population than the entire state of Iowa, but no candidate for president ever visits them.

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  46. basset said on April 8, 2021 at 1:49 pm

    Thanks, Julie and JeffTMMO. Been reading about train wrecks and found a researcher who’d turned up fifteen verses of “Wreck of the Old 97,” I have threatened to inflict all of them on the group… previously I was familiar with maybe four.

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  47. Julie Robinson said on April 8, 2021 at 2:33 pm

    Whew, Sherri! I was certain I’d unintentionally written something offensive.

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  48. Dave said on April 8, 2021 at 2:36 pm

    15 verses? Whoa, I had no idea. All I know is the first verse which ends with, Put ‘er into Spencer on time”. Steve never made it.

    There were so many train wrecks over a century ago, looking through any old newspapers will bring that to your attention. There was good reason railroaders had a hard buying life insurance, they usually ended up creating “associations” to protect themselves. I have found many stories over the years on the specific lines I worked on and all of the wrecks and deaths that happened. Nobody I knew or even the old men were there when I was young knew these stories, they had happened before their time. There are a lot of train wreck songs, other than the well known ones.

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  49. basset said on April 8, 2021 at 3:05 pm

    That’s the third verse the way I’d usually heard it – the first two were “One Sunday morning I was standing on the mountain…” and “97 was the fastest train the South had ever seen…”, then “They gave him his orders in Monroe, Virginia…”, which I believe is the verse you’re thinking about.

    Here’s where I found the 15 verses, and there are indeed many more wrecks to talk about: https://www.amazon.com/Scalded-Death-Steam-Authentic-Disasters/dp/0945575017

    The deadliest, or at least second deadliest, rail crash in US history happened about eight miles from our house, and it’s not in the book:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Train_Wreck_of_1918

    Neither is another accident a few miles closer on the same line, ammunition train explosion at the end of the Civil War.

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  50. Bitter Scribe said on April 8, 2021 at 3:15 pm

    After Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was elected, Gaetz openly and grossly lusted after her. Like that was ever going to happen. I’m sure she’s laughing her ass off at each new revelation about him.

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  51. Sherri said on April 8, 2021 at 3:56 pm

    Bitter, I think “openly gross” pretty much sums up Gaetz.

    And many of his compatriots in the GQP.

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  52. Dorothy said on April 8, 2021 at 4:25 pm

    Yay for nice, long b.s. sessions over the phone! LAMary and I just had a pretty good one and it was delightful. Makes me hope for an in-person meeting someday, hopefully with MANY of you. This is such a great place to hang out. If we all DID get together, I’m betting we’d need a deli or bakery paper number machine so we would have to take turns talking!

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  53. LAMary said on April 8, 2021 at 5:13 pm

    It was a good one Dorothy. From that call I had to go back to work calls asking applicants for a homeless outreach position the following question: “Our clients are frequently suffering from conditions such as urine or fecal incontinence, body lice, scabies, aids, intravenous drug use. How comfortable are you with this population?”

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  54. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 8, 2021 at 6:05 pm

    You forgot the bedbugs…

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  55. David C said on April 8, 2021 at 6:20 pm

    What? Are they staying at Merde-a-Lago, Jeff?

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  56. LAMary said on April 8, 2021 at 7:34 pm

    Jeff, I did forget the bedbugs. That is actually part of that question. Didn’t have to ask that one too often today. I was hiring an administrative assistant to work remotely collecting data from the community health workers who are in encampments and shelters. Also was hiring monitors for project room key. They keep the peace in the motels that have been converted into temporary shelters.

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  57. Dexter Friend said on April 9, 2021 at 2:07 am

    My older brother Bob inherited the music gene, which neither I nor younger brother did at all. He paid his way through Ball State by playing lead guitar in a band called “Styx and Stones”, before the big-time band “Styx” arrived. Interestingly, a band member was John Hiatt, no relation to the big-time singer of the same name, and father of Lily Hiatt, another star.
    Well, one day all three brothers gathered at the Waterloo homestead and headed for Jay’s Inn, a beer bar there in town. I had been drinking beer there for many years, and had never seen anyone go near the old piano in the corner. Bob ordered a draught and strolled over and brushed years of dust off the keys cover and slid it up and away and it was immediately like Jelly Roll Morton had walked in, playing some old ragtime tunes, just a-beatin’ those old 88s. The oldtimers glanced over and a few of the regulars smiled a little and toe-tapped a while. That was likely the last time anyone tickled those ivories. So I can understand basset’s deal.

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  58. Beobachter said on April 9, 2021 at 4:43 am

    Heads up to Twyla Tharp fans, she was on Thursday’s Fresh Air:

    https://text.npr.org/985290016

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  59. Suzanne said on April 9, 2021 at 7:17 am

    Prince Phillip has died

    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/prince-philip-husband-britain-s-queen-elizabeth-ii-dies-99-n1258159

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  60. ROGirl said on April 9, 2021 at 7:25 am

    Charles must be wondering if mummy can’t be far behind.

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  61. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 9, 2021 at 8:16 am

    Checked in this morning, expecting LAMary to have a Prince Philip story. Hello?

    Lightning and thunder all night; today will be a long day and I’m hoping for a nap.

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  62. Julie Robinson said on April 9, 2021 at 9:07 am

    Jeff, we had that storm night before last, and the upside of a sleepless night was that it cleared the air of pollen and today I woke up without a sinus headache for the first time in weeks.

    What Beobachter said about the Twyla Tharp interview. So worth your time and your attention.

    Our son had a rough reaction to the J&J, chills/shaking/body pain/fatigue. BIL had same thing. My second Pfizer only gave me a sore arm for the evening, go figure.

    For everyone who finds mistakes in their daily newspapers, I give you today’s Pearls Before Swine: https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2021/04/09.

    No doubt LAMary will have a better story than this, but our daughter met Queen Elizabeth for half a minute when she was in London. A Norwegian friend invited her as his plus one to an event celebrating the bond between the two countries. She forgot to curtsy.

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  63. Dorothy said on April 9, 2021 at 9:20 am

    Mummy is in pretty great health and has not had the myriad health problems that her late hubs has had. Her own mother lived to the ripe ol’ age of 101 so Bets could be around for a good bit longer. No telling if her heart is going to be broken by the loss of her dear one, though.

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  64. Deborah said on April 9, 2021 at 11:02 am

    I really want to go here https://americanwritersmuseum.org but it won’t reopen until we’re back in NM. The company I used to work for designed it a couple of years after I retired. It’s was open for a few years before the pandemic but I sort of forgot to check it out until I was reminded of it again.

    Waiting for LAMary to check in with a good PP story.

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  65. basset said on April 9, 2021 at 11:09 am

    Dave@48, here’s where I found all those verses to “Wreck…”: https://www.amazon.com/Scalded-Death-Steam-Authentic-Disasters/dp/0945575017

    I always thought the “put her into Spencer” verse was the third, the first two being “One Sunday morning I was standing on the mountain…” and “97 was the fastest train…”

    The book did not include the most deadly, or maybe second most, wreck in US history, which happened about eight miles from the Basset place: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Train_Wreck_of_1918

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  66. basset said on April 9, 2021 at 11:11 am

    And John Boehner says he got a knife pulled on him outside the House chamber? By another Representative?

    https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2021/04/08/john-boehner-book-gop-todd-pkg-tsr-vpx.cnn

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  67. LAMary said on April 9, 2021 at 11:32 am

    Jeez. I’m in a different time zone, guys. I also worked for an hour before checking this so give a crone a break.
    The only Phil the Greek story I have is that the in house brit was presented his college diploma at Manchester University by Phil. The brit’s impression of that experience was Phil saying, “congratulations on your graduation” with the standard upper crust clenched lower jaw. The shook hands. He gave him his diploma. End of story. On the other hand we have an invented scenario for Liz and Phil’s typical evening. Phil was on a short leash with her maj so we said he would go out drinking, driving an old Ford Cortina with one door that doesn’t match, listening to “A Walk in the Black Forest” on a cassette that’s been stuck in the player for years. When he’d come home to the palace, tipsy and with some bint’s lipstick on his shirt, her maj (aka Brenda) would say, “what time do you call this?”

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  68. Deborah said on April 9, 2021 at 12:47 pm

    I knew we’d get a good one, and we got two!

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  69. LAMary said on April 9, 2021 at 1:02 pm

    But one was fictional. We regularly make up stories about the royals here. The one I like was about the Queen’s Christmas broadcast. Instead of having her give holiday greetings and inspirational hope for a good year I think she’s sitting on the floor with all her unwrapped gifts around her. She holds up a tea towel and mentions how nice it is. Then some slippers. A tea cozy. A toast rack…

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