As I was walking back from copy editing tonight, twirling a stick I found on the ground (I really need to buy myself a mace...yes, a nice solid metal mace, that would do the trick) I saw a shadowy character lurking behind a juniper tree near the Music Building (yes, this really happened). It wasn't a trick of my eyes—I made sure of that by blinking a bit—and when I paused after passing the tree to get a good look at the person, she stepped out from the shadows slightly and said hello. Lo and behold, 'twas the wood nymph!
It turns out that she was getting sprigs of juniper or whatever conifer that tree consists of to augment her Halloween costume—she is going to be a wood nymph, though, so I got that part right.
In other news, check out the list I made for my fellow newspaper staffers and copy editors:
-It’s Miami University of Ohio, not University of Miami-Ohio or University of Ohio-Miami or whatever other pansy crap you want to put.
-Pankaj Chhabra, poor guy.
-The verb you’re looking for is "served," not "serviced"—cars, bulls, and prostitutes are serviced and/or service others. Yes, it sounds politically incorrect to say "served," as though they’re our servants—but it's lewd the other way.
-Student Health and Counseling Services = SHCS, not SCHS. It’s health services, not a high school.
-There’s one (1) space between sentences in journalistic writing, not two (2).
-We have staff reporters and contributing reporters, not writers. (Perhaps that’s one of our problems.)
-People aren’t enthusiastic for blah di blah, they’re usually enthusiastic about blah di blah or enthusiastic to see blah di blah.
-So-and-so is the associate director of, not for, whatever it is.
This list is now in 22-point font, printed out, and stabbed to a wall in the newspaper office with a dart. Take that!