4 Copy Editors Killed In Ongoing AP Style, Chicago Manual Gang Violence

Humor website The Onion (@TheOnion) “reports” a “news” article that only an editor or writer (or English teacher) can appreciate ☺:

Law enforcement officials confirmed Friday that four more copy editors were killed this week amid ongoing violence between two rival gangs divided by their loyalties to the The Associated Press Stylebook (@APStylebook) and The Chicago Manual Of Style (@ChicagoManual).

“At this time we have reason to believe the killings were gang-related and carried out by adherents of both the AP and Chicago styles, part of a vicious, bloody feud to establish control over the grammar and usage guidelines governing American English,” said FBI spokesman Paul Holstein, showing reporters graffiti tags in which the word “anti-social” had been corrected to read “antisocial.”

The deadly territory dispute between these two organizations, as well as the notorious MLA Handbook gang, has claimed the lives of more than 63 publishing professionals this year alone. Officials also stated that an innocent 35-year-old passerby who found himself caught up in a long-winded dispute over use of the serial, or Oxford, comma had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Mystery Book Sculptor Returns for Book Week Scotland

According to a report in theguardian (@guardian) newspaper, “Scotland's mystery book sculptor has been up to her old tricks again this week, leaving a series of literary-themed sculptures in secret locations.”

The sculptor – all that has been revealed about her is that she is female and that she loves books – made her first startling appearances last year, leaving intricate paper models of a tiny Ian Rankin in a cinema, a model of a gramophone and a coffin and a detailed paper tree around Edinburgh. Now, to mark Book Week Scotland this week, she has been enticed into making a comeback, with five new sculptures inspired by classic Scottish stories hidden around the country.

Read this in full.

Also see our previous blogposts, "EPILOGUE: the future of print" and "The Book Surgeon."

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you publish and market your books. Our international office is in St. Andrews, Scotland.

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Biblio-Mat: Random Book-Vending Machine

The Biblio-Mat is a random book dispenser built by Craig Small (thejuggernaut.ca) for The Monkey’s Paw, an idiosyncratic antiquarian bookshop in Toronto, Canada. Biblio-Mat books (112 million possibilities), which vary widely in size and subject matter, cost $2 and are dispensed without regard to customer selection.

The machine was conceived as an artful alternative to the ubiquitous and often ignored discount sidewalk bin. When a customer puts coins into it, the Biblio-Mat dramatically whirrs and vibrates as the machine is set in motion. The ring of an old telephone bell enhances the thrill when the customer’s mystery book is delivered with a satisfying clunk into the receptacle below.

Read this in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you lead strategically.

Learn about online marketing with SomersaultSocial.

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And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Innovation tab.

Video: Hitler Reacts to the Penguin - Random House Merger

HA! The above humorous video concerns the recent announcement that Random House and Penguin have agreed to merge. It was obviously produced by someone who knows the publishing business.

Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you navigate the fast-changing world of publishing.

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Happy International Apostrophe Day

The Guardian’s (@guardian) Style Guide (@guardianstyle) editor David Marsh (@davidrmarsh) has declared today to be International Apostrophe Day (#apostropheday).

For proper execution, see The Writing Kit’s tutorial, Using the Apostrophe, and the above poster (see it enlarged).

Read why the British bookstore chain Waterstone’s (@Waterstones) dropped its apostrophe earlier this year, then listen to two BBC commentators discuss its implications.

See The Apostrophe Protection Society and the blogs Apostrophe Abuse (@apostropheabuse) and Apostrophe Catastrophes.

For fun, see this apostrophe/comma Speed Bump comic by Dave Coverly. J

And remember that the popular Bible translation Common English Bible (@CommonEngBible) uses the apostrophe in its copious number of contractions (which are used where the text warrants an engaging conversational style, but not used in divine or poetic discourse).

Let Somersault’s (@smrsault) editorial expertise help you properly use apostrophes when communicating your brand’s message.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Scrabble Champion Named

Because we at Somersault (@smrsault) love words, we thought you’d like to know Nigel Richards, 45, a New Zealand security analyst who lives in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, won the 2012 National SCRABBLE Championship in Orlando, FL, that concluded today, according to the North American SCRABBLE Players Association (@NASPA) tournament website. This is his 3rd consecutive title and 4th overall, both unprecedented achievements. He is also the reigning World Champion.

Both Richards and the runner-up, 1994 champion David Gibson of Spartanburg, SC, won 22 games (out of 31), but Richards had accumulated a better spread (+1579 vs. +1563, a difference of only 16 points) after winning the final game against Gibson by 177 points (475 to 298).

During the tournament, one contestant was disqualified for cheating.

Some of the most creative words played in the tournament were: ZADDICK (a virtuous person by Jewish religious standards), ERYTHEMA (a redness of the skin), ORPHIC (mystical), and WAWL (to cry like a cat).

Also see The New Yorker's poem, Reflections on a Winning Scrabble Board.

Contact Somersault to help you in your writing craft and to connect you with readers.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard, created especially for publishing and marketing professionals.

A Bookmark on the Loose

This video by Salon Alpin tells the story of a bookmark stuck in a forgotten book that is one day knocked over by wind. The bookmark experiences its environment by surfing the pages that turn in to ocean-waves, enjoying the ride of its life. As the book cover closes, light reveals new challenges.

 

See 3 videos that show the making of the above video.

Also see our blogposts, “EPILOGUE: the future of print” and "The 3 Qualities That Make a YouTube Video Go Viral."

If you love books like we (@smrsault) do, we invite you to make our SomersaultNOW online dashboard your personal computer homepage (see instructions).