Full Hands: One Small Step for Charlotte-kind

Great quote about editors

This comes from Sam Taylor's The Amnesiac, a really cool book. This British author writes about "sub-editors," which seem to be pretty close to what we term copy editors here in the States, and which I have done for a living.
A copy editor is "essentially a kind of filter; it was my job to simplify and clarify other people's writing. I removed unnecessary sentences, corrected mistakes, reworked jumbled paragraphs. Where there was messiness, I brought order; where there was prolixity, brevity; where there was ambiguity, certainty. I was a policeman of words. I made each article fit neatly in its assigned box and sometimes gave it a headline too. The headlines were the sole source of amusement in the job: whereas in all my other tasks, I was expected to be sober, straightforward, machinelike, with the headlines I was free to have some fun. ... I don't remember now any of those headlines, but I remember the modest pleasure they gave me."

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

One Small Step for Charlotte-kind

She walked! She took four steps last night! Yay for Charlotte! What was really fun is that all of our family were gathered in the living room (Marce was watching the very disappointing final NBA game) and that I was on the phone with my mom. So all of us were able to see her take her first steps, and my mom got to hear us all cheering for her. Thrilling stuff. I have to admit, even on our fourth child, it's just as exciting as it was with our first. Could be even more so, since there are more of us to be excited! It's amazing how wondrous it is to watch a baby grow up and learn new things. It's always fresh and thrilling.