Author Topic: In the New Yorker...  (Read 1920883 times)

Offline serious crayons

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #1560 on: March 13, 2017, 10:01:35 am »
Also, when the NYT asked, "If you could require the president to read one book, what would it be?" he said:

I’d recommend that 18th-century classic on political strategy by the Count deRinchy, called “A Tim’ly Resignation Doth Suit a Gentleman Well.” There is also his lesser-known classic, “Labor Thee Always to Not Insult or Afright Those Thou Wouldst Leadeth.” DeRinchy also was a poet of some repute, and his little volume “The Truth Remains True, Even Amongst a Sea of Deliberate Falsehoods” is a timeless classic.

 :laugh:

 :laugh: :laugh:

I saw that -- funny!

You know, I always thought if I were ever interviewed for one of those things, I'd spend the week before desperately doing research so that when they ask things like, "What's a good book you recently read?" I could answer with some obscure 18th century novel and look all erudite instead of, "Um, 'Gone Girl,' I guess."

Looks like George went one better and skipped the week of desperate research!  :laugh:  :laugh:




Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #1561 on: March 22, 2017, 01:03:46 pm »
I was not going to read the profile of photographer Catherine Opie in the March 13 issue, because, I'll be perfectly honest about this, I was put off by the photo of the subject nursing her child. However, the article was written by Ariel Levy, and I always read her articles, so I read the Opie profile, and I'll admit that I'm glad I did because she seems like an interesting person with an interesting personal history. Also, the things Opie had to say about S/M resonated with my own personal history.
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline serious crayons

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #1562 on: March 26, 2017, 10:09:27 am »
I was skimming a duty article by a journalist ebedded with a SWAT team outside Mosul and I spotted another New Yorker typographic idiosyncrasy that I think I'd subconsciously noticed before but never quite registered.

When writing all-caps acronyms like SWAT and ISIS and AWOL, they put it in a weird little font that's the size of the small letters of the regular type. For example, in SWAT team, SWAT is shorter than the "t" but the same height as the "eam." Soemthing like SWAT team. (That's actually a little too small -- I think in this example the "SWAT" would probably be 9 pt. to "teams"'s 10, and we can only choose either 8 or 10. But you get the idea.)

What's up with that? I don't think any other publication does that. I would make you want to seek a beat that never required you to report on ISIS or any other topics with frequent acronyms.





Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #1563 on: March 26, 2017, 03:28:40 pm »
I was skimming a duty article by a journalist ebedded with a SWAT team outside Mosul and I spotted another New Yorker typographic idiosyncrasy that I think I'd subconsciously noticed before but never quite registered.

When writing all-caps acronyms like SWAT and ISIS and AWOL, they put it in a weird little font that's the size of the small letters of the regular type. For example, in SWAT team, SWAT is shorter than the "t" but the same height as the "eam." Soemthing like SWAT team. (That's actually a little too small -- I think in this example the "SWAT" would probably be 9 pt. to "teams"'s 10, and we can only choose either 8 or 10. But you get the idea.)

What's up with that? I don't think any other publication does that. I would make you want to seek a beat that never required you to report on ISIS or any other topics with frequent acronyms.

I read that article, and I never really noticed or thought about that before. Are they just using small caps?
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline serious crayons

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #1564 on: March 26, 2017, 05:14:22 pm »
Are they just using small caps?

If you're asking in a literal rather than oxymoronic sense, then yes. They are using all caps but in a smaller font than the surrounding type.

And I've since approached a part of the article that suggests it -- the article's content, not the caps issue -- becomes more dramatic and less dutiful as it goes along.

Also, I should add that I could never be an embedded war correspondent for the New Yorker, weird acronyms or no, or for any other publication.




Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #1565 on: March 26, 2017, 06:02:27 pm »
If you're asking in a literal rather than oxymoronic sense, then yes. They are using all caps but in a smaller font than the surrounding type.

Yes, I did mean that literally rather than oxymoronically. (I have to deal with lots of small caps in my work.)

Quote
And I've since approached a part of the article that suggests it -- the article's content, not the caps issue -- becomes more dramatic and less dutiful as it goes along.

Also, I should add that I could never be an embedded war correspondent for the New Yorker, weird acronyms or no, or for any other publication.

I found it a compelling read. And I couldn't be an imbedded correspondent, either. Not for anything.
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline serious crayons

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #1566 on: March 26, 2017, 08:58:41 pm »
Yes, I did mean that literally rather than oxymoronically. (I have to deal with lots of small caps in my work.)

In what context(s) do you use them? Would you stick them amid a larger font when writing an acronym?




Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #1567 on: March 26, 2017, 11:12:09 pm »
In what context(s) do you use them? Would you stick them amid a larger font when writing an acronym?

In a general way, I might say that whether I would use the small caps in a larger font might depend on the point size. In something like SWAT, small caps certainly save space.

Small caps are used a lot in medical-scientific writing, and we use them for "a.m." and "p.m.," rather than lower case. I think we might get that from the American Medical Association style book.
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline serious crayons

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #1568 on: March 27, 2017, 10:11:48 am »
Interesting.

At both of my jobs, we follow Associated Press style. At my medical-device job, we follow American Psychological Association style for citations, but pretty much everything else, including times of day, are AP style. We do occasionally use % in a headline or table for the sake of clarity and brevity, although AP oddly insists on spelling out percent.

The New Yorker clearly follows none of the above, though maybe it's sort of close to Chicago Style? I don't know -- I'm less familiar with that one.


 



Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #1569 on: March 27, 2017, 11:28:04 am »
Interesting.

At both of my jobs, we follow Associated Press style. At my medical-device job, we follow American Psychological Association style for citations, but pretty much everything else, including times of day, are AP style. We do occasionally use % in a headline or table for the sake of clarity and brevity, although AP oddly insists on spelling out percent.

The New Yorker clearly follows none of the above, though maybe it's sort of close to Chicago Style? I don't know -- I'm less familiar with that one.

The 15th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style, the edition we have in our offices, doesn't prescribe caps or small caps, except in specialized usages. It does say, however, that when caps are wanted for emphasis, "Small caps rather than full capitals look more graceful" (7.50). Chicago 15 seems geared more to how and when to use small caps if your style is to use small caps.
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.