[CrackMonkey] Re: breaking the ; habit (fwd)

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Seth David Schoen (schoen at loyalty.org):

> You get flamed for using "[sic]", and for not using "[sic]".
> 
> This _must_ be crackmonkey.

Back when I was a volunteer newsletter editor, I called my friend Bob
Steiner and mentioned that I was undecided on the sic-or-not question:
I was printing an extended quotation that had obvious spelling or typing
errors in it, and didn't want to (1) fool with the original text, which
seemed presumptuous, (2) print it unchanged, which would make _me_ look
sloppy, or (3) pepper it with "sic", which would make me look smarmy.

Bob opined that the best solution was to correct the quoted text on the
fly without comment.  He said, what's the speaker going to do, call you
up and complain "Hey, how dare you make me look literate"?

So, that's what I do -- except, of course, on the frequent occasions
when I want to look smarmy.

-- 
Cheers,                Linux:  It is now safe to turn on your computer.
Rick Moen
rick (at) linuxmafia.com