The various elite news outlets of the world are doing their thing over fellow elitist Graydon Carter’s memoir, publishing…Tuesday, I expect. It does sound like an amusing, if name-droppy, read. But I was taken with this brief passage quoted in the NYT; it’s about certain rules Carter enforced when he edited Vanity Fair:
Out went words like abode, opine, plethora and passed away (for died). Out went glitzy, wannabe and even celebrity. Out went chops (for acting abilities), donned (as in put-on), A-list, boasted (as in had or featured), coiffed, eatery (for restaurant), flat (for apartment), flick (for movie) … honcho, hooker, schlep (as in to lug something somewhere), scribe (as in writer) and Tinseltown. All found their way into the copyedit boneyard.
Most of these words are journalese, i.e. the language spoken only in print. No one calls a writer a scribe except in print. No one says, “I don’t care for that Nancy Nall and her constant opining.” Once someone used the phrase “ink” to describe signing a contract in a casual conversation with me, and I kinda cringed. But the larger point is, all editors have such lists. One of my former bosses hated the word “butt” to describe the place where your legs join your back, and insisted it be replaced with “hips,” which isn’t even accurate. There was the guy who hated the word “moist,” in all its forms. I read Carter’s list to Alan because I spotted two of my husband’s on there – “donned” and “Tinseltown.” He also immediately strikes “mustachioed” if he sees it in any copy he handles. My own peeves are pretty much aligned. I despise any deep description of a person’s appearance, if that appearance is entirely ordinary, unless that ordinariness is important somewhere down the line. Back when newspapers had money, they’d send reporters to writing conferences, where well-known writers would say, “Describe people! Use adjectives!” And the reporters all came home and dutifully detailed the city manager’s khaki pants, Oxford-cloth button-down and navy blazer. I recall seeing one story that described a deer as “honey-colored.” They’re all honey-colored, hon; tell me if it’s a pinto.
OK, then. The last few days have been a little action-packed. I’m recertifying my lifeguarding credential, and it turns out the recert class is just the original class, but free. So it’s me and a dozen teenagers, and they are way stronger than me. But I’m hanging in there. Just way more tired. Also, the news of the day is bringing me down. I’m so disappointed in the waste of oxygen who calls himself one of my senators that I don’t know what to do. My old friend Vince the fellow Fellow describes himself as “beyond despondent.” If Democrats won’t fight, what good are they?
On edit: Here’s a beautiful story for St. Patrick’s Day. Gift link.
Sherri said on March 16, 2025 at 6:34 pm
The memoir I just devoured, mentioned on the last thread, is the one Facebook/Meta doesn’t want you to read. It’s Careless People, by Sarah Wynn-Williams, the former Director of Global Policy for Facebook. The careless people of the title are particularly Zuckerberg and Sandberg, who come across as pretty much lacking in human decency.
Meta is trying to block future sales of the book on the grounds that the author violated a non-disparagement contract. They’re also claiming it’s full of false accusations and she’s just a disgruntled ex-employee fired for poor performance, but she’s included plenty of emails in the book.
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alex said on March 16, 2025 at 6:45 pm
They’re always saying “donned,” but never “doffed.” Perhaps indecent imagery in a “family newspaper.”
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Heather said on March 16, 2025 at 7:02 pm
A friend of from college is married to someone who was a favorite of Graydon Carter’s and was an editor at VF for years. He had zero editing or journalism experience—he just seemed to have the right look, i.e. he was/is very handsome and stylish. He also wrote a memoir, which was OK, but my main takeaway was that white male privilege is pretty amazing.
I do miss Graydon as the editor of the magazine though. I canceled my subscription because I just wasn’t interested in most of the stories they publish now.
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Deborah said on March 16, 2025 at 7:24 pm
Careless People is on my list. I’m currently reading To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, I think it’s my 9th book during the 9th week of the Trump regime, to be honest I’ve lost count.
Also I’m binge watching Severance. Which seems pretty far fetched but then compared to the current situation this country is in, it seems pretty tame. I mean in your wildest imagination say 12 or 15 years ago did you ever think we’d be living through this? The sinister and villainous characters we’re watching in real time are more extreme than in movies.
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Jeff Gill said on March 17, 2025 at 8:19 am
Those walks to the elevator with family stick with you. As does the gift of life. (Check that donor box, folks.)
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Julie Robinson said on March 17, 2025 at 12:08 pm
That one made me a little weepy. My donor boxes were checked even before my dad received a heart transplant, and when he died after it didn’t take, they were still able to use his corneas. Fun fact: if you are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, your box is automatically unchecked.
Is everyone okay after all the wind storms? What a wild weekend. We got a little wind here but mostly it didn’t come this far south.
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alex said on March 17, 2025 at 12:41 pm
So, what, are they afraid transplant patients will get Alzheimer’s cooties from corneas? Can’t be too cautious I guess.
I just begged off from an intrusive home nursing visit from some outfit called Signify Health that claimed it was partnered with my insurance carrier. They were insistent that I undergo a home medical exam. After googling around, I saw a lot of negative stuff about Signify both as an employer and as a medical provider and I contacted my insurance carrier to ask if they were in fact affiliated. I was told that they are and that the exam is not mandatory, then connected my call to Signify so I could cancel my appointment. No sooner did I hang up than my phone rang and it was one of their reps trying to set me up with a new appointment. I find their whole approach aggressive and off-putting, and what’s more, their rationale for doing this only makes sense if you don’t have closely managed medical care like I do already.
I need the carrier to get off its ass and give prior auth for a new cholesterol med that it has been sitting on for a week. I was taken off of statins in December and urgently need this approved.
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Lou Gravity said on March 17, 2025 at 1:29 pm
Multiple. Potential. Make it stop.
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Julie Robinson said on March 17, 2025 at 2:21 pm
No idea why organs from Alzheimer’s patients can’t be used. It was presented in a speech I attended.
The medical establishment is always happy to milk the Medicare cash cow. They especially love the Medicare Well Check, which consists of a bunch of questions and a large bill. My mom’s doctor has a person in their office that just does that, and she keeps calling to schedule it even though I’ve repeatedly told her that Mom doesn’t want it and to please write that in her chart and stop calling.
So she got clever, and left me a message that she had scheduled one right after the regular doctor appointment. I cancelled it but it made me a little spicy. Mom just wants to be left alone with as little medical intervention as possible.
Getting Repatha, Alex? We usually have to get Mom certified for it every year because the insurance, they do not want to pay that big bill. But she can’t tolerate statins and Zetia wasn’t doing it anymore, and her lab numbers are quite impressive now. I give her a shot every other week, and it comes pre-loaded in a pen, so no biggie.
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alex said on March 17, 2025 at 2:33 pm
Yep, that’d be Repatha. My liver can’t handle statins anymore.
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Sherri said on March 17, 2025 at 2:48 pm
No surprise to see this is what Chuck Schumer thinks:
“Look, I talk to a lot of these Republican legislators. I’ve worked with them. Some of them are Trump devotees. But many of them don’t like him, don’t respect him and worry about what he’s doing to our country. Right now he’s so popular they can’t resist him. I mean, so many of them came to me and said: “I don’t think Hegseth should be defense secretary or R.F.K. should be H.H.S. But Trump wants him. He won.” The Republicans would like to have some freedom from Trump, but they won’t until we bring him down in popularity. That happened with Bush in 2005. It happened with Trump in 2017. When it happens, I am hopeful that our Republican colleagues will resume working with us. And I talk to them. One of the places is in the gym. When you’re on that bike in your shorts, panting away next to a Republican, a lot of the inhibitions come off.”
One reason Trump got elected is because Congress has been dysfunctional for years, because Republicans have refused to allow anything useful to happen. Wake up, Chuck.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/16/magazine/chuck-schumer-interview.html?unlocked_article_code=1.4k4.9gX7.KR3XDrN6zIVl&smid=url-share
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Jeff Borden said on March 17, 2025 at 4:20 pm
Chuck Schumer and the old guard are utterly unprepared and seem to think it’s just a matter of time before tRump is neutered. Bullshit. He is angling for a giant court fight. In fact, he’s picking one right now by ignoring judges who have told him to stop with the deportations until due process is satisfied. That ratfuck “deportation czar” has declared the flights will continue regardless of what those courts do. We’re only a step away from people “disappearing” as they did under Pinochet decades ago. And Chucky just wants to wait until his QOP pals are ready “to work with us again.” Fuck you, Chuck! They’re never coming around because they are petrified of the violence MAGA thugs threaten whenever they slightly inconvenience tRump. We have a rogue “leader” rapidly turning us into a pariah nation. And the Dems just roll over. Is everyone here confident. . .I mean confident down to your bones. . .that we’ll have midterms? I’m not.
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JodiP said on March 17, 2025 at 5:32 pm
What a beautiful story–thank you for sharing it.
I have my donor box checked, but this made me realize I need to tell my family. When I was married I knew my wife would honor that wish.
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Alan Stamm said on March 17, 2025 at 5:41 pm
Dan Barry brings it with style and grace, every time. Beautiful indeed, and masterfully crafted.
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Mark P said on March 17, 2025 at 6:01 pm
Chuck Schumer needs to be primaried. Democrats should be looking for another candidate right now.
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Sherri said on March 17, 2025 at 6:04 pm
The states hold elections, so there will probably be midterms. Whether the elections will be meaningful is another question. Right now it’s an open question whether SCOTUS is going to give Trump a free pass to ignore court orders, or whether he will just ignore SCOTUS if they don’t. We’re already in fringe on the flag territory in terms of the administration saying court orders don’t apply (verbal order don’t count? Orders don’t count in international airspace?) We know that Alito and Thomas are all in on destroying the Constitution, with Gorsuch right behind, and Kavanaugh unlikely to stand up to them, leaving the fate of the independent judiciary in the hands of John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett, not a comforting thought.
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Jakash said on March 17, 2025 at 6:22 pm
Thanks for the link to that NYT interview, Sherri.
Alas, I’m in my accustomed unpopular opinion territory about this. I don’t quite understand how allowing the government to be shut down would “allow anything useful to happen.” Nor do I understand why the Republicans would have been likely to negotiate a better bill, had the Democrats filibustered, rather than just letting the government be shut down.
I may well be a sucker, but the quotes that I found persuasive were these:
“A shutdown would shut down all government agencies, and it would solely be up to Trump and DOGE and Musk what to open again, because they could determine what was essential. So their goal of decimating the whole federal government, of cutting agency after agency after agency, would occur under a shutdown.”
“The damage they can do under a shutdown is much worse than any other damage that they could do.”
“And finally, one final point here, and that is that right now under the C.R., you can go to court and contest an executive order to shut something down. Under a shutdown, the executive branch has sole power.”
“The bottom line is if the filibuster would have been used and the government shut down, the devastation would be terrible. You see, we’ve had government shutdowns before, but never against such nihilists, such anti-government fanatics as Trump, DOGE, Musk.”
Of course, one of the things I find disturbing is how often I look at one of these old guys in the news and realize that they’re not all THAT much older than I am. Ugh. Which is part of why I’m sure my opinion here can be readily discounted. And I agree that Schumer saying: “I am hopeful that our Republican colleagues will resume working with us.” is wishful thinking in all caps, bordering on delusional.
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Julie Robinson said on March 17, 2025 at 6:48 pm
WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) patients don’t get their vouchers or formula when the government shuts down. They won’t have the reserves to buy them out of ppocket. WIC workers don’t get their paltry paychecks. Entry level WIC workers actually qualify for WIC themselves, that’s how little they get paid. When the government reopens, the already overworked staff has to recertify every single patient. That’s what my sister experienced during a government shutdown.
Personal rant: I went to pick up my glasses and they’re unusable. The good people at Costco optical determined that the new optometrist (not at Costco, but where my insurance would pay) switched my prisms from right to left and left to right. I had taken in every single prescription from the last 15 years, and the doctor even looked at them, so I’m hoping it’s just a clerical error. I drove over there immediately with the wrong glasses, but they can’t fit me in until Wednesday. Then I have to go back to Costco to order the new ones, and the distances aren’t close.
Bless Costco, they are going to remake my lenses without charge even though it wasn’t their mistake. But I’m fuming about all the extra time, and that I won’t have my new glasses before our trip next week. I’m sure missing my Fort Wayne optometrist.
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Sherri said on March 17, 2025 at 7:11 pm
A shutdown would be terrible, yes, but it was the only point of leverage the Dems had. We’re very aware of how much damage is being done, but low information voters aren’t, unless they’ve been directly affected.
The Dems need to make everyone aware of what’s going on, and who is doing it, and who will benefit a who will be harmed. Shutting the government down was the most effective way they had, as terrible as it was. The Republicans and Trump have to feel some pushback and pain, or they will not stop.
Now the Dems have sacrificed their leverage for nothing.
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Deborah said on March 17, 2025 at 8:01 pm
WIC is probably going to get axed by Musk/Trump anyway, so yes they wouldn’t get what they need if the government shut down and the workers wouldn’t get paid either, but they’re going to lose all that pretty soon anyway. Very sad state of affairs.
I’m having to go to Costco tomorrow because my hearing aids hurt my ear canals. I don’t know if I’m pushing the part that goes inside my ear in too far or if I’m allergic to the material the domes are made of? I have no idea, but they make smaller domes so I’ve got an appointment tomorrow afternoon to have them check it out at the Costco here in Chicago. And the good news is I’ll get to have a hotdog and that delicious chocolate ice cream!
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Sherri said on March 17, 2025 at 9:06 pm
Well, one thing Trump has done is make it clear that all the return to office mandates were never about productivity, they were about doing layoffs without having to do layoffs.
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Sherri said on March 17, 2025 at 10:23 pm
If the Dems plan is to let the courts handle Trump, then what is their plan for when Trump defies the courts and refuses to comply with court orders? It seems to be “oh, he won’t do that”, even though he’s giving every indication that he will do exactly that. Or maybe, “then my Republican gym buddies will start working with me!”
If your Republican gym buddies were going to start working with you, Trump would have been convicted by the Senate after trying to stage an insurrection and would not be president today. If they wouldn’t stand up then, they’re never going to.
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Jeff Gill said on March 18, 2025 at 8:16 am
“Elvis sells better as a dead man.”
~ Donald Trump, Mar. 17, 2025.
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Bitter Scribe said on March 18, 2025 at 10:04 am
I spent the second half of my career at trade magazines, so I developed a bunch of esoteric pet copy peeves. One of the worst was “solution,” used as an all-purpose descriptor by every PR agent for everything they were trying to push. “This exciting new solution to warehouse management…”
The first time a rookie I was supervising repeated something like that in his copy, I told him never to use the word unless 1) it referred to a liquified combination of two or more chemically miscible substances or 2) it was part of a company’s name. “Your toaster is a *solution* to toasting your bread in the morning,” I said.
Regarding “scribe,” I use it in my handle simply as an affectation. So I’m pretentious. Sue me.
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alex said on March 18, 2025 at 10:09 am
Well, insurance denied Repatha, so we’ll see if my doctor’s willing to go to the mat for me.
In other news, I was bashing Credit Karma the other day here on NN.C for spamming me with junk, but now I have to say something good about it.
This morning I got a notification from Credit Karma that there had been a hard inquiry on me by Citi. Weirdly, last night I got a robocall telling me that my CBNA card (Citi) had been used for a purchase and to press 1 if this was unauthorized, then the call hung up as I was trying to process what I’d just heard. As I don’t have a CBNA/Citi card, I called Citi’s customer service this morning and learned that there had been an application in my name and I shut it down. What’s even more odd is that someone had previously opened a Citi card fraudulently in my name a couple of years ago and I got that account closed down, but it was only recently that I managed to get that stricken from my record with the credit reporting agencies after contesting it numerous times. I think Citi must be fairly promiscuous in giving out cards, not to mention stubborn about admitting its mistakes.
Obviously, consumer protection should be more important than ever. I curse those sick fucks for torpedoing the CFPB, along with everything else.
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Icarus said on March 18, 2025 at 12:24 pm
“This is an appropriate balance of powers and we trust this White House to do the right thing, and I think that was the right vote and it was reflected in the vote count,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said when asked by Reuters why he was comfortable giving more trade power to the executive branch.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/house-republicans-block-congress-ability-challenge-trump-tariffs-2025-03-11/
We are so F-D!
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Mark P said on March 18, 2025 at 3:13 pm
I think it was Citi ( maybe Capitol One) that issued a credit card in my uncle’s name recently. He has been dead for seven years.
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Julie Robinson said on March 18, 2025 at 4:07 pm
Alex, when the insurance denied my mother Repatha, I gathered all her labs showing before and after numbers, as well as written information from previous doctors as to why she can’t tolerate statins. I forwarded it all to the doctor and she cut and pasted it to the insurance. You won’t have the after labs yet, but if you access them from over the years along with what meds you were taking, it could help.
I have learned to ask, ask, and then ask again.
Oh! I just remembered that when she started Repatha Parkview had a foundation that covered most of the cost and the wonderful nurse at her cardiologist filled out the form for us. She was seeing someone at Parkview’s cardiology department, I’ve forgotten who as her orginal guy retired.
Now, anyone got a lead on cheap Miebo for dry eye? My copay would be $45/month and the manufacturer program isn’t for people on Medicare. GoodRx offers a bargain at $825/month, ha.
We have a CITI card because of Costco and it’s always denying payments. Just ordered a bunch of theatre tickets and by the fourth order it was getting rejected. It happened constantly in Europe even though we had told them in advance that we were going. We had to make three calls when we were over there, and a couple of times the museums we wanted to go to had sold out by the time CITI released the hold. So I wonder at their inconsistency.
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Deborah said on March 18, 2025 at 4:11 pm
My niece who lives in Minneapolis told me that the jerk state congressman who tried to make Trump Derangement Syndrome a mental illness got picked up for soliciting a minor. Ha ha ha ha. Lots of doctors had written op eds in today’s Star Tribune about how politicians can’t just invent medical conditions.
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Dexter Friend said on March 18, 2025 at 6:02 pm
Butcher Netanyahu killed 400 Palestinians, women and many children included, last night, and people seem uncaring here in the USA. He then proclaimed this will continue from now on until Hamas releases all the hostages, 59 , last count.
We all want Hamas neutralized and all hostages returned alive. But is genocide the approved pathway to success? It makes me fucking sick. Where is the outrage for the safety of the people of Gaza? Not here, not much anyway.
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Deborah said on March 18, 2025 at 7:48 pm
There was a big dust storm in NM today, visibility on some of the interstates was 0 so they were closed for a few hours. Now those winds are heading into Texas and Oklahoma. I’m not there but LB said she’s never seen anything like it.
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