The Engine Room
Blog URL http://engineroomblog.blogspot.com
Located London, London United Kingdom
Tags editing, publishing, media, language, journalism, magazines, linguistics, editor, writing
A blog about language use, editing, publishing and the media in general. Brought to you by a sub editor (copy editor) on a weekly magazine in the UK.
Latest Blog Posts
- Why is the TV show 'SMart' called 'SMart'? on Nov 20, 2009 in names television
There's a long-running BBC TV show called SMart. It's about art and it's aimed at children. So why the name 'SMart'?Well, obviously, the word 'smart' contains within it the word 'art'. So far, so good. It's just that capital 'M' that bugs me.I would...
- The city of Derby, Iowa: population 131 on Nov 19, 2009 in Wikipedia statistics and numbers
The Wikipedia page on Derby, Iowa begins:Derby is a city in Lucas County, Iowa, United States. The population was 131 at the 2000 census.A city with 131 inhabitants! That made me laugh. Even St David's, the UK's smallest city, has a population of 1,8...
- 'No More Big Gaps' on Nov 18, 2009 in brand name
The company behind the adhesive 'No More Nails', UniBond, also makes a foam filler called 'No More Big Gaps'. What a great name.However while 'No More Nails' is a substitute for nails (in certain circumstances), 'No More Big Gaps' is not a substitute...
- Eastenders and the 'Beale-L-T' on Nov 16, 2009 in television puns
It looks like the Eastenders crew has been having some fun with language.The cafe in the BBC soap opera is owned by a character called Ian Beale. And instead of the traditional BLT, Ian's cafe offers a 'Beale-L-T'.I've even managed to get a screengra...
- Art criticism from Metro on Nov 13, 2009 in Metro hyperbole
According to Metro, a paper not renowned for its understatement, this portrait of Gordon Brown's wife Sarah "would struggle to make it on to the fridge door if it was painted by a three-year old".I'm fairly confident that any three-year-old producing...
- 'On a scale of 1 to 10 where 0 is poor' on Nov 12, 2009 in training scales
I've been on a training course called 'Managing High-Performing Teams' for the past couple of days. I've enjoyed it, and maybe I'll write some more about it tomorrow, but for now I just want to share this extract from the course materials:Scaling: On...
- Google Wave, turbulence and Serenity on Nov 11, 2009 in films Google Wave
So I'm all signed up with Google Wave after wangling an invitation out of one of my senior colleagues. It's fun to play with but I'm getting a bit tired of seeing this error message:Apparently the wording is based on a quote from the Joss Whedon sci-...
