Matthew Somoroff
@matthewsomoroff.bsky.social
170 followers 230 following 330 posts
project editor at UNC Press; music studies PhD; lifetime jazzhead; Queens (NY) native, Durham (NC) resident
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
matthewsomoroff.bsky.social
should probably take this down.

authors, I sympathize! believe me
matthewsomoroff.bsky.social
Author Separation Anxiety Syndrome:

A collection of related behavior patterns presented by an author who finds themselves unable to finalize manuscript edits and let go of the manuscript to allow it to move into production.

Sometimes referred to as Author's Remorse Syndrome
matthewsomoroff.bsky.social
no, this is the first I’ve heard of it!

the book I’m working on does analysis of how bad the food served in prisons is and how it contributes to the suffering of the inmates, etc
matthewsomoroff.bsky.social
hey you know what’s really bad? PRISONS

project-editing a book on prison food that’s forthcoming from UNC Press. stay tuned!
matthewsomoroff.bsky.social
oh dang! that’ll show me 😆
matthewsomoroff.bsky.social
"Vice Provost for AI"

we're in the Bad Place
matthewsomoroff.bsky.social
“inbox zero” has got to be a concept cooked up by one of those productivity/self-improvement hacks

totally fine if a given person *prefers* to have an empty inbox or a desk with a minimum of objects on it, but to propose that these are universal, objectively desirable goals is to peddle snake oil
matthewsomoroff.bsky.social
my only quibble with your sentiments is that the serial comma can be called just that—no need to bring that elitist British institution into the matter

(speaking of unhingedness)
matthewsomoroff.bsky.social
seems like a disincentive to continue communication with a person
matthewsomoroff.bsky.social
back before I started my current in-house job I had the distinct pleasure of copyediting this book. very smart analysis and written with a lot of heart. highly recommended!
uofmpress.bsky.social
@dandipiero.bsky.social's book "Big Feelings: Queer and Feminist Indie Rock After Riot Grrrl" is now available! Sample the book's music playlist and read an excerpt at press.umich.edu/Books/B/Big-...
Reposted by Matthew Somoroff
audrajwolfe.bsky.social
A reminder for academic book authors:

Yes, it’s totally fine to flag a couple of people who should not peer review your book

But do it in a phone call, not the proposal, not an email
Reposted by Matthew Somoroff
matthewsomoroff.bsky.social
well, that one, they say, was rejected by speakers.

this project looks purely descriptivist—like linguistic anthro, just documenting and collecting what's out there, being said by people
matthewsomoroff.bsky.social
well, I found this page on the Yale Grammatical Diversity Project's website. it documents the existence of "that's" as a relative possessive, but it doesn't make any statement about whether the construction should be considered "grammatically correct"
Relative possessive that’s | Yale Grammatical Diversity Project: English in North America
ygdp.yale.edu
matthewsomoroff.bsky.social
the (original) length of that intro!
matthewsomoroff.bsky.social
haha see I have no beef with S-ending names in possessive form. Miles Davis’s name looks fine to me like that.

and I will need to investigate further, but I’m not sure grammarians would say the possessive “that’s” *is* technically correct
matthewsomoroff.bsky.social
“a term that’s origins”
“a concept that’s time has come”

the “that’s” in these phrases sounds really off to me