Friends Don't Let Friends Drink and Copyedit

I forgot that one of the best things about being unemployed is catching up on reading.

So I stayed in bed today and flipped through the last four weeks of the Sunday Times (which had all been bought and left untouched in a heap under my coffee table), a 7-month-old People Magazine (oh, how I long for the days when Tom Cruise was just beginning his multi-city tour of Crazyville), the New York Magazine about vacations my unemployed-butt doesn't have any money to take AND this week's Newsweek.

Which brings me to my point: Has someone been hitting the bottle over there?

Once you get through all the theres-a-war-in-the-Middle-East-you-should-care-about-our-government's-predicament crap (though I swear I will try to bone up on current affairs now that I have no job), you get to the good stuff: a profile on actress Rebecca Romijn.

[Quick!  Name three movies she's been in! (And they can't be the only two credits that spring to mind for me which are 1.) her turn as the blue-body-paint covered Mystique in "X-Men" and 2.) her role as Full-House hottie John Stamos's hot wife.)].

Anyway, the article talks about her new show "Pepper Dennis," on which she apparently plays a klutzy hottie who is a news reporter who trips over stuff a lot.

Download newsweek_makes_a_booboo.pdf I tore the page out of the mag and highlighted it to make my point, as, if you'll notice:  THE ARTICLE HAS NO SPACES BETWEEN WORDS.

(Unless "leavesherbraslyingaround her" and "stnatlyringingcellphonewhen" are erudite words a dolt like me doesn't know.)

We're not talking one or two little too-close-to-calls.  It's the entire freaking article.

It's called a space-bar, people.

No one caught this before it went to press???

So: Newsweek -- Do you perhaps need some sober copy-editors who understand there are limits to type-fitting??  People who understand that, when you reach those limits, you must actually start deleting words?

If so, I am available, as I'm newly unemployed.  You just let me know and I'll zip my resume right on over.

On a side note, it's Monday. And I've not been this happy on a Monday in a LONG time.

Quest-to-win-the-lottery update (which is now not just about luck, but about survival, as I am Un.Em.Ployed!!!)

==============================
Day 19:
Bought one lottery ticket.
Lost one
Total: $11.
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That still can't put a damper on my day.

 

Comments

[Linda Schmidt]

Loved "Friends Don't Let Friends..." Sad to say, I think I know how this awful gaffe befell Newsweek.

Are you looking for strictly copyediting work, or would you be interested in a production-editorial job? In travel publishing? At Random House?

[Crystal]

This reminds me of a co-worker in the marketing dept. who couldn't write to save her life but could find a misplaced comma or uneven kerning on a cereal box (she used to actually circle all the mistakes on various snack boxes at lunch).