Not again

Temporarily boring:
Links to one of my old blog posts from 23 February 2006 have just appeared online as 'evidence' of, er, something or other. My post, from almost five years ago to the day, considered whether the author of the Temporary Hoarding blog had a bad memory or was just making stuff up in response to my blog. By reading other autobiographical material on his blog and elsewhere, it became clear that he was claiming to have been in two places at once, among other things. (Bear with me on this, reader.) Soon a reply to me appeared, now dated "4/8 March" (2006); the date indicates that two versions of the post existed, with some clean-up done on the first entry in the intervening days before the 8 March version.

Much silliness survives in the new edit, casting doubt on its reliability. For instance, there's an alleged screening of Gone with the Wind in Sheffield which I am supposed to have organised but which DID NOT HAPPEN. Full stop. It's a lie or a hallucination. Anyone who can prove I staged this event and that my memory is playing up or that I am lying wins a cash prize. 

Staying Awake vs. Holding a Wake

'Levels of Proofreading
... Intermediate II: Duties of Beginner and Intermediate I plus typeface identification and type specifications' (Laura Killen Anderson, Handbook for Proofreading, Lincolnwood, Ill.: NTC Business Books, p.4).

Hopefully any colleges teaching proofreading at this exhibition were not involved in teaching the exhibitor's publicity department.

Wolf's bane

TV Choice is one of Britain's bestselling publications, yet none of this revenue seems to go on proper subeditors. I don't mean a proofer to check the spelling and punctuation, which is generally okay. It's someone to think about the context the words appear in. Many a time I read a plot summary of a film which uses the names of the actor and the character interchangeably. Or maybe Ghost Rider really is about Nicolas Cage turning into a demonic biker.

Things reached new levels of silliness with last week's competition:

You read it right: to celebrate the publication of Changeling: Blood Wolf the magazine is giving away a 'five-star holiday for two to the beautiful island of Cyprus'. Aside from whether the prose scans, this is a remarkably specific form of celebration. Sadly it not not make it onto my calendar either, suggesting the tenuous hold of Changeling: Blood Wolf day on the nation's collective heart. How many cards did you get?