Heh, Steph, we have shouted pretty much the same things at authors/businesses we have edited.

And I get SO PISSED when people are all "Oh, your wife doesn't work?" Um. Not only do I battle womanfully against crippling depression and anxiety, I do my best to work as mush as possible, build my business AND while this house fooforaw has been going on, I have also spent at LEAST 3-4 per day deep cleaning, packing, moving stuff around and fielding calls, and sitting in the cold ass garage for 3-7 showings per day because agents get pissy if the owners are IN the house, yanno, LIVING and WORKING like real people, when they are showing.

So, yeah. I get you.

Ugh. The radon inspector was supposed to be here at 9, and no show. Don't they have to come IN the house? And the inspection is at noon today. It's not like I was up til 3:15 WORKING and applying for gigs or anything...

@@

I really have to email the author to say "It is journal style," etc., because otherwise when they see their article online with [blah] rather than [foo] they will lose their minds.

Oh sure, but I could (in a different kind of setting) imagine that being a notification

Well, sometimes within the article we will make a comment balloon informing that something is our style (like, if an abbreviation isn't used 5 or more times, we spell out the term -- we don't expect authors to know that, so when we delete an abbreviation we tell them why). But other times, we assume they know we're editing terminology according to our style, not just a whim. If we changed [foo] to [blah] *50 times*, then we clearly have a reason. (Of course, they believe they have a reason for keeping it as [foo], which is why I'm complaining online instead of working.)

Okay, non-work-related question:

We got a wedding invitation today that noted "Cocktail attire," which sounds swanky but not as swanky as black tie. So Tim can wear his suit, of course, but can I wear this dress (but with stockings, and without the tiara): [link] It's a June wedding, if that makes any difference. That's the most "cocktail attire" dress I have that fits properly.

I think you need the tiara.

if an abbreviation isn't used 5 or more times, we spell out the term

Ooh, I am very interested in this as a rule of thumb, but hadn't thought about it that explicitly. The number of acronyms and initialisms we use makes me CRAZY.

Not in publications, but the theatre artistic director makes all these schedules and documents, and he abbreviates EVERYTHING to the point that I can hardly read it. And he abbreviates weirdly, so he will say on X date there will be a meeting which will be attended by Dir.'s, Des. Mtr, TD, PM, PSM, SSM, AAVE, COstume Designers, Props Master, MST Electrician.

It DRIVES ME BATTY!

He also once created an abbreivation for the role "Senior Special Stage Management Mentor) that involved super scripts S(3)M(2).

That dress is perfect cocktail attire.

They're not online, they exchange handwritten letters.

OMG Tom, I love you.

Steph I would totes wear that as cocktail attire, but my closet has a dearth of actual cocktail dresses. In my head, anything that aims towards the classic LBD in either style or color would do.

I have just discovered a weird skin thing on my collarbone. Thanks to the basal cell carcinoma I had removed last year, I am mildly worried that it is skin cancer. Again.

I agree with -t completely. That is a smashing cocktail dress!

Excellent! I am ready for the wedding! (Seriously, this sounds fancy and HUGE -- the reception is at the convention center. Yowza!)

if an abbreviation isn't used 5 or more times, we spell out the term

Ooh, I am very interested in this as a rule of thumb, but hadn't thought about it that explicitly. The number of acronyms and initialisms we use makes me CRAZY.

That's the reason we do it -- there can be so many abbreviations in medical stuff that we had to set a rule for when they can be used (i.e., only if it's 5 or more times), because otherwise the articles turn into alphabet soup.