A few random notes from my job

[redbird]

• I left a comment yesterday, asking if we could change the caption on a picture of New Hampshire's "Old Man of the Mountain" to past tense. (The picture is illustrating a short piece about same, for a reading/comprehension test prep book.)


• Conversely, when it says "Andrew Jackson against the Wigs," no query, just insert the h.


• I realize defining genres is difficult, but "involves an epic battle of Good versus Evil, or wizards or a quest for a magical item" is neither necessary nor sufficient to define fantasy: it leaves out (just for example) papersky's Tooth and Claw and Elizabeth Lynn's Chronicles of Tornor, but would include a realistic novel about the Battle of Britain. Plot coupons, anyone?


• About 4 this afternoon, I went over to ask the IT guy when the new computer now sitting near my desk would be hooked up to replace my laptop. After dramatically telling me he'd had a very hard day, he admitted that no, he'd just forgotten, and said he'll do it tomorrow morning, and I should come remind him when I get to work.
  


• It's as well nobody sits near me at the instant, as I suspect it might be considered unprofessional (or at least distracting) to start singing along with the manuscript I'm copyediting. But the Steely Dan setting of the Lobster Quadrille is firmly lodged in my brain. That said, none of the poetry from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is suitable for use on the assumption that every story, poem, etc. has a message, because it's not really fair to the captive audience to ask them what lesson the snail has learned by the end of the poem.