The aughts, y'all.

Welcome back from the weekend! Did you have a good one? I hope so. Let's get back to business.

Back in the aughts, many websites and small publishers felt they could forego a copy editor. It was a dark and wooly time. It was argued that their services weren't necessary, since writers could do the work themselves. While making considerably less than what they used to, thereby being forced to do considerably more work. Overworked and underpaid. Now, I don't know if that's what went wrong in today's submissions, but it's possible. Small, independent newspapers and websites have just as much access to the internet as the rest of us. There is NO STORY that wouldn't benefit from a half-hour pass through the googleworks, whether you're the author of the piece, or the copy editor, or the guy that hits PUBLISH right before heading out to dinner. Y'know?

I'm presenting this in chunks because I received it as a pdf, so we're screengrabbing it up, y'all. First, the masthead, so you know where this info is coming from.

Probably didn't need the "but" in there, but whatever.

 And next, some info from the story.

I guess they weren't able to stop in time. Also, I'm going to lean in favor of Oxford comma for this headline.

And finally, my favorite bit:

I am only ever temporarily serious. 

I was once asked by a high school English teacher if I ever actually reread the papers I wrote for class once I completed them. I didn't, and that had maybe led to the D I'd gotten. That's what I'd like to ask the writer of this piece. Did you read it when you were done with it? I suspect not. You might want to consider that as a final step BEFORE turning in your article in the future. It will likely make a WORLD of difference.

(this piece sent to me by loyal reader and friend YL! Thanks!)