In the New Yorker...

[serious crayons]

Am I reading this wrong or is this a pretty egregious editing error by New Yorker standards? It's from a March 2022 article that I just happen to be reading now.

Doctors in the Midlands had developed the custom of recording when a baby had died; doctors in London that a miscarriage had occurred.

Either switch the semicolon for a comma or add a verb to the second part.

[Front-Ranger]

That is a seriously messed up sentence! The only way it could work is if the "when" and "that" could be coordinated; either use when in both cases or that in both cases.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Am I reading this wrong or is this a pretty egregious editing error by New Yorker standards? It's from a March 2022 article that I just happen to be reading now.

Either switch the semicolon for a comma or add a verb to the second part.

I'd just switch the semicolon to a comma. That said, I do think it would be a better sentence if it were written as "that a baby had died" and "that a miscarriage had occurred." That would make the two parts parallel. "When" makes me think the doctor was looking at his watch and noting the time. But maybe he was?

But I also don't know the context of the sentence.

[serious crayons]

I'd just switch the semicolon to a comma. That said, I do think it would be a better sentence if it were written as "that a baby had died" and "that a miscarriage had occurred." That would make the two parts parallel. "When" makes me think the doctor was looking at his watch and noting the time. But maybe he was?

But I also don't know the context of the sentence.

The article was about how numbers and statistics can be misleading. Those two places were part of one study and I guess that difference messed up the results.

Agreed about "that"!

[Jeff Wrangler]

The article was about how numbers and statistics can be misleading. Those two places were part of one study and I guess that difference messed up the results.

Agreed about "that"!

Numbers and statistics misleading? Imagine that! 

[Front-Ranger]

...I did have a next-door neighbor for a while who was being considered to replace Keillor when he retired (before the scandal) and would have been good. He's a storyteller who performs onstage all over the country and in Europe, presents one-man shows at the Guthrie Theater, has told a lot of stories on NPR, has published books and put out CDs. Anyway, his material is very recognizably Minnesotan too -- he even uses somewhat of a Fargo accent -- and the suburb he grew up in is only closer to Minneapolis than the suburb Garrison Keillor grew up in. Kevin's take is more original, to me.

How cool to have a neighbor like that! There was a guy who replaced GK for a while after he retired. He could even sing. But I don't think the show is playing now.

[serious crayons]

How cool to have a neighbor like that! There was a guy who replaced GK for a while after he retired. He could even sing. But I don't think the show is playing now.

Yeah, I haven't followed it very closely but I get the feeling it/he was never quite accepted as a substitute.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I'm kind of disappointed in the anniversary issue. So far I've given up on two articles, the one on impostor syndrome (wasn't what I thought it would be about) and the one on Austin (way too long).

On the other hand, the articles by Rebecca Mead and Joan Acocella were very entertaining.

[Front-Ranger]

The only article that interested me was the Salman Rushdie one.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Well, I guess I learned something today. Since I'd burned through the anniversary issue of TNY and had nothing else to read over lunch, I opened the latest issue of the AARP magazine, the one with Lily Tomlin, Sally Field, Jane Fonda, and Rita Moreno on the cover. I've been getting this magazine as part of my membership and never reading it. To my surprise, there are a lot of interesting articles in the magazine, and unlike so many things in TNY these days--they're short! I think I'm going to go back and look at some of the earlier issues, starting with the one with Dame Helen Mirren on the cover, at least until I get another TNY to read.