From a Washington Post story by Jeff Stein headlined “Jeff Bezos spars with Biden White House over inflation”:
About Editing and Writing
a blog by Jack Limpert, Editor of The Washingtonian for more than 40 years.
From Talk Between New York Times Columnists Gail Collins and Bret Stephens: Do You Really Think President Biden Will Run for Re-Election?
May 16, 2022
From the weekly conversation between New York Times columnists Gail Collins and Bret Stephens:
Gail Collins: Bret, you and I live in a state that has some of the toughest gun laws in the country. But that didn’t stop a teenager with a history of making threats from getting his hands on a semiautomatic rifle and mowing down 10 people at a supermarket in a Black neighborhood in Buffalo on Saturday.
Bret Stephens: It’s sickening. And part of a grotesque pattern: the racist massacre in Charleston in 2015, the antisemitic massacre in Pittsburgh in 2018, the anti-Hispanic massacre in El Paso in 2019 and so many others. There’s a bloody crossroads where easy access to weapons and increasingly commonplace conspiracy theories meet.
Latest News in Russia-Ukraine War
May 16, 2022
Ukraine: Ambitions are growing in Kyiv about what would define victory for Ukraine, as Ukrainian forces continue to take back Russian-occupied territory. Many Ukrainian refugees are heading back home, following the Russian pullback from the central part of the country.
More than 260 Ukrainian fighters who have been holding out for months at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol were evacuated ahead of a planned prisoner exchange, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said Monday.
Russian forces continued to shell cities in Donbas and carried out a missile strike in western Ukraine.
How a Writing Coach Beats Writer’s Block
May 16, 2022
From a story on poynter.org by Roy Peter Clark headlined “How a bigshot writing coach beats writer’s block”:
It might give you comfort to learn that America’s friendliest writing coach on occasion succumbs to writer’s block. On a rare occasion, he refers to himself in the third person, but will stop doing that — right now.
I am thinking about this now because instead of revising my 300-page book manuscript, I am writing this essay on writer’s block. I could be watching the hockey game or mowing the lawn, but this will do for the moment.
Jack Shafer: Why Jeff Bezos’ Tweets Are So Dumb
May 16, 2022
From a Jack Shafer Fourth Estate column on politico.com headlined “Why Jeff Bezos’ Anti-Biden Tweets Are So Dumb”:
Why do the billionaires tweet? The subject here, of course, is the motivation of the Ironmen of Twitter ego-tripping, Elon Muskand Jeff Bezos — not Bill Gates, whose tweets taste like weak dishwater, neither sudsy nor drinkable.
Musk tweets because his obsessive-compulsive disorder commands him to chime in on everything from his investments to his crackpot Covid-19 views to pronouns (they “suck”) to rude comments about Gates to name-calling (Elizabeth Warren, in his eyes, is a “Karen”) to raising the ire of the Securities and Exchange Commission. “Some people use their hair to express themselves, I use Twitter,” Musk tweeted in 2019.
About Solving the New York Times Crossword Puzzle
May 16, 2022
From an Inside the Times story by Rachel Fabi headlined “A ‘Queen’ of the Crossword Reigns”:
MONDAY PUZZLE — Hello, solvers, and welcome back to another installment of the Monday Wordplay column, where we help you get to know the tips and tricks of the New York Times Crossword puzzle. Most new solvers know that Monday puzzles are the easiest of the week, but one feature with which new solvers might not yet be acquainted is the online crossword puzzle archive. It contains every puzzle published by the New York Times Crossword editor, Will Shortz, stretching all the way back to 1993.
Jelani Cobb Named Dean of Columbia Journalism School
May 16, 2022
From Columbia University president Lee Bollinger:
It is with great pleasure that I write to announce my appointment of Jelani Cobb as the next Dean of Columbia Journalism School, as of August 1, 2022. Professor Cobb is the Ira A. Lipman Professor of Journalism and Director of the Ira A. Lipman Center for Journalism and Civil and Human Rights.
Sherri Dalphonse Named Editor of Washingtonian Magazine
May 16, 2022
From Cathy Merrill Williams, publisher of Washingtonian magazine:
I am delighted to announce that our next editor-in-chief will be Sherri Dalphonse. She will be only the fifth editor in Washingtonian’s 57-year-history and the first-ever woman editor-in-chief. We are one of a very small number of woman-owned media companies and we now proudly have women leading both editorial and sales!
How AP Stylebook’s Editors Decide How to Change Their Guidance
May 16, 2022
From Colleen Newvine – product manager, AP Stylebook:
If you have ever wondered how the AP Stylebook’s editors decide how to add or change their guidance, a new section now available on AP Stylebook Online offers insight.
Below is an excerpt from the new section, which will also appear in the AP Stylebook, 56th Edition, coming on June 1.
“The English language is fluid and changes incessantly. What last year may have been very formal, next year may be loosely informal. Word combinations, slogans and phrases are being added and becoming part of the language. …
What Washington Post Reporters Were Slacking About on Sunday
May 16, 2022
From a story on politico.com headlined “What Washington Post reporters were slacking about on Sunday”:
“Jeff Bezos Criticizes Joe Biden in Twitter Spat Over Inflation,” by WSJ’s Tarini Parti and Bradley Olson.
Exchange No. 1:
- Biden’s original tweet: “You want to bring down inflation? Let’s make sure the wealthiest corporations pay their fair share.”
- Bezos’ response: “The newly created Disinformation Board should review this tweet, or maybe they need to form a new Non Sequitur Board instead. Raising corp taxes is fine to discuss. Taming inflation is critical to discuss. Mushing them together is just misdirection.”
