Well, the normal plain M&Ms are prettier than the special Jedi ones.

I am not watching the Fox broadcast of the Star Wars films. Coincedentally, last night I bought the DVDs of the Star Wars Trilogy.

I'm assuming Fox is not broadcasting the letterbox version?

ION:

Ten Mistakes Writers Don't See (But Can Easily Fix When They Do)

So the following is a list I'll be referring to people *before* they submit anything in writing to anybody (me, agent, publisher, your mom, your boss). From email messages and front-page news in the New York Times to published books and magazine articles, the 10 ouchies listed here crop up everywhere. They're so pernicious that even respected Internet columnists are not immune.

The list also could be called, "10 COMMON PROBLEMS THAT DISMISS YOU AS AN AMATEUR," because these mistakes are obvious to literary agents and editors, who may start wording their decline letter by page 5. What a tragedy that would be.

also,

Hooray for copyeditors! Enough About Me #8: In Which the Author Hands in His Copyedited Manuscript and Pays Tribute to the Most Unheralded Job in Publishing

Well, the normal plain M&Ms are prettier than the special Jedi ones.

That's what happens when Jedi are not allowed relationships....

Hey, folks? What piece of primary source material from the American Revolution do you think would be most useful for a class learning how to interpret historical information? I'm thinking, speeches, Acts, historical accounts -- anyone have a specific suggestion?

And I also have a question.

I have a vague idea that there's a study or a scale out there...something that measures the livability of various cities, not just in terms of economic criteria, but things like, is there a thriving arts scene? Does the city support a symphony?

Anyone have any idea what I'm talking about or where I can find it on the web?

Is it too much to ask of Lucas to release the ORIGINAL versions on DVD??? The bastard needs to loosen up. I need my nostalgia on DVD, dammit.

Even when they're in the location they're portraying, meta considerations often fuck with the geography

Was I ever shocked on Angel, The House Always Wins, to find out that leaving the Tropicana gets you to Freemont Street without a cab ride through Cracktown.

Dana, you want findyourspot.com.

[link]

The new Pope is returning to the use of the royal "we". He is also returning to the use of red velvet slippers.

Conclusion: he's a drag queen.

[link]

tommyrot, those links are great. I've bookmarked the first one for use in editing.

Compound sentences, most modifying clauses and many phrases *require* commas. You may find it necessary to break the rules from time to time, but you can't delete commas just because you don't like the pause they bring to a sentence or just because you want to add tension.

Putting commas in all the places they don't belong and none of the places they do is the single most frequent error I see judging writing contests. Botching singular possessives that end in "s" and/or plural possessives is a close second, though.

What piece of primary source material from the American Revolution do you think would be most useful for a class learning how to interpret historical information?

Perhaps the diary of Joseph Plumb Martin [link] , or the letters that John and Abigail Adams wrote each other.