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Benjamin Dreyer

@bcdreyer.social

75K followers 1.4K following 50K posts

America's Copy Editor® author of the New York Times/IndieBound bestseller Dreyer's English and Stet! (the game!) • Random House copy chief/managing editor (ret.) • he/him/his benjamindreyer.com

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Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · Nov 27

Greetings, new people here at House of Copyediting. Besides first-rate, IISSM, prose advice, you'll get:

• a random theater photo of the day, sometimes more than one
• birthday alerts for dead actresses, and occasionally live ones
• Sallie updates

And it's all free!

our dog, Sallie, a pit mix who looks a bit like a pony or a calf, dozing in bed amid pillows and a quilt

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Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · 5h

🙏🏻

Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · 5h

that little return on my theater degree every time I get to play GOBO or ATOMIES in Scrabble

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Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · 5h

*pats adjacent gilt chair*

We’ll sit close.

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Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · 5h

You are nothing if not thorough! And circular!

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Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · 11h

And whatever would of walked there, would of walked alone.

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Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · 11h

👇🏻 super interesting!

Stan Carey @stancarey.bsky.social · 12h

"Would of" (for "would've) and other modal+"of" phrases are surprisingly common in literature – see the link below for loads of examples

But I've seldom if ever seen both at once: "would've of" (from Jim Nesbit's novel Lethal Injection) [1/2]

stancarey.wordpress.com/2012/10/23/w... #writing

"Well, I'll be damned," Eddie said. "I never would've of thought you had it in you."

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Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · 11h

Had she been alive I would likely have respectfully asked her to confirm her nonstandardisms, but her intention was not in doubt.

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Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · 12h

I’m happy to take credit for encountering the Let Me Tell You examples in copyediting and merrily thinking If that’s what Shirley wants, then we’re good to go.

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Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer

Popehat Agitates And Irritates @kenwhite.bsky.social · 13h

On the 18th we need to be vigilant for increased violence and provocation by both law enforcement and counter-protestors, both of which will be used to try to justify more violence and authoritarianism.

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Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · 13h

GodDAMMIT.

Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · 13h

🫢

Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · 13h

I too fell short of winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

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Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer

Adam Parkhomenko @adamparkhomenko.bsky.social · 14h

We’re doing what?!

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 14h

Hegseth: "I'm also proud that today we're signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatari Emeri air force facility at the Mountain Home Airbase in Idaho."

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Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · 14h

Yuh-huh.

Isobel_Starling @isobelstarling.bsky.social · 14h

"When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognise courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist. Democracy depends on people who refuse to stay silent, who dare to step forward despite grave risk." - Nobel Committee on awarding the peace prize to Maria Corina Machado denying Trump.

a cartoon of a chef with a needle in his mouth is playing at 4:32

ALT: a cartoon of a chef with a needle in his mouth is playing at 4:32

media.tenor.com

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Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · 15h

singular

and yes: use "they"

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Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · 15h

today's random theater photo:

Flora Robson and Michael Redgrave as Mr. and Mrs. Macbeth (1948)

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Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · 15h

Happy Helen Hayes's birthday!

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Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · 1d

I just nearly posted “Ye gods, what a dreadful title” at the author of the book.

🫢

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Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer

A.R. Moxon @juliusgoat.bsky.social · 1d

Arrest her?

ProPublica @propublica.org · 1d

Kristi Noem, while governor of South Dakota, supplemented her roughly $130,000 salary by secretly accepting $80,000 donated to a political nonprofit she was affiliated with, records show.

She never disclosed this income on federal ethics forms.

(Published June)

Kristi Noem Secretly Took a Cut of Political Donations

A dark money group paid $80,000 to Noem’s personal company when she was governor of South Dakota. She did not include this income on her federal disclosure forms, a likely violation of ethics requirem...

www.propublica.org

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Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · 1d

feels like Lotte Reiniger gif time

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Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · 1d

Sounds like a you problem, writes Benjamin Dreyer.

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Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer

mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 1d

Thiessen having a good chuckle about his fired liberal colleagues - some of whom he worked with for 15 years - is a good reminder that token conservatives at mainstream news outlets are/were there to destroy them, not to contribute to them.

Philip Bump @pbump.com · 1d

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Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · 1d

Other direction.

Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · 1d

Nice goin'.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I'm blocked by 2,292 accounts here and am blocking 10,117.

🤷🏻‍♂️

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Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · 1d

(Having more accounts block you than follow you, as is imminent in this case, is probably not a good thing.)

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