Pop Culture References

Oh, yeah, I forgot that one. What the hell is Google Earth?

 

Then, of course, there is the jargon of the business. Tim Brando, calling the Saints-Titans preseason game, just now described the start at QB by Billy Volek as an "aircheck."

Yeah, I'm sure most fans understood that better than saying "audition."

 

J_D, the copy editor who did that to you should be shot. You have to assume some degree of awareness of surrounding on the part of the reader.

 

Some editors believe using pop culture references will make us seem hipper to younger readers. I think it has the effect of us putting on a toupe, leaving the top two buttons open to expose chest hair and buying a convertible.

 

Dools,

The same guy made another edit that drove me crazy. I interviewed Shaq a few months before his belated but highly celebrated graduation from LSU. The Big Aristotle said, when asked, his major was crayon biology. He spent the better part of the interview making fun of his academic prowess.

I wrapped up the column with a second reference, saying something silly like: What else would the world's highest-paid crayon biologist say?

It became: What else would the world's highest-paid "crayon biologist" say?

When I asked about the change, said copy editor said, "Well, there's no such job."

 

It seems like Google Earth is really taking over a lot of things now... you can't watch CNN without seeing a Google Earth map of where Joe E. Reporter is dodging bombs.. hell, they even used the Google Earth maps in the intro for the regional final of the Little League World Series to show where hard to find place like "Mississippi" and "Louisiana" are.

I was still awake after covering a MLB game at like 2:30 a.m., leave me alone about the LLWS...

 

One of the worst copy editing changes I've ever heard of.
Then working at the DMN, Mark Blaudschun covered and Oklahoma game and his lead was something like "Oklahoma, where the wins come sweeping down the plain.''
The desk changed "wins" to "victories."

 

That's right. Now what's all this crud about no movie tonight?

 

I was hoping you'd say that. ;D ;D ;D

 

I'm not one for hard-and-fast rules about writing. Language is dynamic, style is personal, and good writers are artists, not scientists.

However, nothing makes copy seem clumsier -- and will make it seem more quickly dated -- than shitbox popular culture references. SO DON'T FUCKING DO IT, EVER.

I don't know why, but SI is particularly glaring in its sins, as though throwing in a Britney Spears analogy or comparing free agency to the blood spores in War of the Worlds will suddenly make the magazine "hip."

It doesn't. It's a weak stab at being contemporary, it doesn't fit in with the normally solid, graceful prose of the SI stable, it smacks of effort, and it's distracting as hell for the reader. Those lines always jump out like the freaky ass cave people in The Descent.

Or, as I would prefer it, like motherfuckers.

After all, you can never go wrong with a good cussword.

 

Probably because it was an awful cliche even back then. ;D

 

Ken Finkel would love this thread.
And if you know who he is, you know what I am talking about.