World Book Night 2013

2013 award for excellence in indexing

The American Society for Indexing has awarded the 2013 H.W. Wilson Award to a long-time friend and colleague, Kate Mertes. Kate’s winning index is to Montesquieu’s My Thoughts (Mes Pensées) , published by the Liberty Fund. The Wilson Award Committee has also commended the publisher for enhancing the usability of Kate’s complex index with an elegant design and layout. I cannot wait […]

The grocer’s apostrophe: a weeping pustule on the shining face of English?

English usage and grammar is a hot mess, to be frank: rules that contradict hundreds of years of use appear out of nowhere and for no discernible reason; spelling is off the hook; and even when something is nice and tidy (“sneak” entered English in 1594 and its past tense was “sneaked”) we complicate it needlessly (“snuck” […]

On vacation until March 15

From January 28 until March 15, I will be out of the country with limited access to phone and e-mail.  During that time please get in touch with Lisa DeBoer at deboer18@gmail.com.  She will be minding the shop for Colleen Dunham Indexing and will be able to track me down if necessary.

… woof

When it’s twanging

From Kurt’s letters: When I get home, I numb my twanging intellect with several belts of Scotch and water.

My still life

Sing it with me

C’mon. Click here. Don’t be shy. De colores, de colores se visten los campos en la primavera. De colores, de colores son los pajaritos que vienen de afuera. De colores, de colores es el arco iris que vemos lucir. Y por eso los grandes amores de muchos colores me gustan a mí.

At the cocktail party

Back-of-the-book indexing is much misunderstood, which I know from having to argue at cocktail parties that it cannot be done adequately, let alone well, by a computer. (Yes, unfortunately, that’s what passes for cocktail-party banter in my neighborhood.)”   I’m glad Carol Saller still gets invited to cocktail parties. A senior manuscript editor at the University […]

Frequent yoga pose

Compliments of the Freelancers’ Union.  See more home office poses here.