Benjamin Dreyer
@bcdreyer.social
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
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
Pinned
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!
• 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!
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
Will it be national news? Will it cause performative outrage? Will he be censured?
Nope. Forgotten by tomorrow.
Nope. Forgotten by tomorrow.
February 16, 2026 at 1:19 AM
Will it be national news? Will it cause performative outrage? Will he be censured?
Nope. Forgotten by tomorrow.
Nope. Forgotten by tomorrow.
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
I keep thinking that someday I will become used to the hideousness of cybertrucks and they will finally blend into the background and every time I see one I am struck anew by how awful they are
February 15, 2026 at 10:24 PM
I keep thinking that someday I will become used to the hideousness of cybertrucks and they will finally blend into the background and every time I see one I am struck anew by how awful they are
Says the person who posts "X *and* Y? In *this* economy?" five times a week easy.
I'm glad that people have stopped saying "It's [Blah Blah]'s world; we're just living in it."
February 15, 2026 at 10:34 PM
Says the person who posts "X *and* Y? In *this* economy?" five times a week easy.
I'm glad that people have stopped saying "It's [Blah Blah]'s world; we're just living in it."
February 15, 2026 at 10:32 PM
I'm glad that people have stopped saying "It's [Blah Blah]'s world; we're just living in it."
I almost just said “What would happen if you mound your own business?”
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February 15, 2026 at 10:27 PM
I almost just said “What would happen if you mound your own business?”
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Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
If I were a Democrat concerned about winning elections and was hearing that a significant number of voters wouldn’t support Gavin Newsom in 2028, I would simply stop pushing Gavin Newsom in 2026.
look if you want to freak out about people not voting newsom if he's the nominee a week before the 2028 general election, I kinda get it (but don't say you weren't warned). doing it now though is just a weird attempt to strong arm people into supporting him in the primary.
I think most (not all) of the "I will never vote for Gavin Newsom" people are communists who are mad that Americans don't like communism and want to destroy the Democratic party out of revenge. They don't care how many elections Republicans win or how many trans people die as long as the Dems fall.
February 15, 2026 at 9:50 PM
If I were a Democrat concerned about winning elections and was hearing that a significant number of voters wouldn’t support Gavin Newsom in 2028, I would simply stop pushing Gavin Newsom in 2026.
It irks me no end that that absolute horror has sullied the great name "Bondi."
February 15, 2026 at 9:18 PM
Is this some sort of bit?
Peter Navarro: "It's the perfect Trump economy in 2026 ... we're seeing stock market over $50,000"
February 15, 2026 at 9:10 PM
Is this some sort of bit?
Orignal title:
ENEMY AGENTS MEET ELLERY QUEEN AT "21" FOR COCKTAILS AND PERHAPS A LIGHT SUPPER
ENEMY AGENTS MEET ELLERY QUEEN AT "21" FOR COCKTAILS AND PERHAPS A LIGHT SUPPER
There’s a case to be made that she’s the best opponent Basil Rathbone’s Sherlock Holmes ever had.
Also, she was in ENEMY AGENTS MEET ELLERY QUEEN!
Also, she was in ENEMY AGENTS MEET ELLERY QUEEN!
Happy Gale Sondergaard's birthday!
February 15, 2026 at 9:09 PM
Orignal title:
ENEMY AGENTS MEET ELLERY QUEEN AT "21" FOR COCKTAILS AND PERHAPS A LIGHT SUPPER
ENEMY AGENTS MEET ELLERY QUEEN AT "21" FOR COCKTAILS AND PERHAPS A LIGHT SUPPER
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My phone gets so excited when I type Sond.
Sondheim or Sondergaard, which will it be this time?
Sondheim or Sondergaard, which will it be this time?
February 15, 2026 at 9:06 PM
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No better film has ever been made than The Time of Their Lives, and I'll fight anyone who says otherwise.
February 15, 2026 at 9:06 PM
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Happy Gale Sondergaard's birthday (cont'd)!
"She...gets a chance to show off her best violent spasms when she pleads for help at the Tuileries and frightens the Empress Eugénie (Gale Sondergaard, who doesn't frighten easy)."
—of course it's Pauline
—of course it's Pauline
February 15, 2026 at 9:05 PM
Happy Gale Sondergaard's birthday (cont'd)!
Voice is, to be sure, of paramount importance to *writers.*
As a *copy editor,* I'm simply obliged to respect voice (and maybe enhance it as possible). I can't, also to be sure, create it.
A worthy clarification, Mr. @sstein.bsky.social.
As a *copy editor,* I'm simply obliged to respect voice (and maybe enhance it as possible). I can't, also to be sure, create it.
A worthy clarification, Mr. @sstein.bsky.social.
I like this hierarchy. I might put 2 and 3 as a tie, but it does capture what I think writing and editing should generally do. “Voice” might go in there somewhere, but it’s probably part of the first three.
My language priorities (in descending order):
• clarity
• elegance
• effectiveness
• spelling (which counts)
• not irritating readers for no good reason
• not irritating readers for no good reason while not even knowing that you're doing it
• "correctness" (wtf that is, I still don't know)
• clarity
• elegance
• effectiveness
• spelling (which counts)
• not irritating readers for no good reason
• not irritating readers for no good reason while not even knowing that you're doing it
• "correctness" (wtf that is, I still don't know)
February 15, 2026 at 9:02 PM
Voice is, to be sure, of paramount importance to *writers.*
As a *copy editor,* I'm simply obliged to respect voice (and maybe enhance it as possible). I can't, also to be sure, create it.
A worthy clarification, Mr. @sstein.bsky.social.
As a *copy editor,* I'm simply obliged to respect voice (and maybe enhance it as possible). I can't, also to be sure, create it.
A worthy clarification, Mr. @sstein.bsky.social.
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Of course it's not 100 percent true, but most things I say about prose aren't.
February 15, 2026 at 8:57 PM
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Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
American culture of the 1840’s would have been *very fucking surprised* to see the Irish considered as co-founders.
Elon’s an ahistorical dipshit, but its always worth saying some stuff out loud: if you‘re a fellow Irish-American and you aren’t 100% pro-immigrant, you’re a fucking embarassment.
Elon’s an ahistorical dipshit, but its always worth saying some stuff out loud: if you‘re a fellow Irish-American and you aren’t 100% pro-immigrant, you’re a fucking embarassment.
1/3 What Musk is really referring to here is, of course “race” - that construct that served to define the hierarchies of wealth & power structured by modern colonialism. Like other far right racists though, he uses the word “culture” as a seemingly less pernicious synonym.
February 15, 2026 at 5:44 PM
American culture of the 1840’s would have been *very fucking surprised* to see the Irish considered as co-founders.
Elon’s an ahistorical dipshit, but its always worth saying some stuff out loud: if you‘re a fellow Irish-American and you aren’t 100% pro-immigrant, you’re a fucking embarassment.
Elon’s an ahistorical dipshit, but its always worth saying some stuff out loud: if you‘re a fellow Irish-American and you aren’t 100% pro-immigrant, you’re a fucking embarassment.
OK, so I have learned only this past hour of a Gale Sondergaard film called Christmas Holiday starring Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly, and I feel as if reality has been hiding it from me.
(Amusingly enough, Mrs. Kelly herself called it out to me.)
(Amusingly enough, Mrs. Kelly herself called it out to me.)
February 15, 2026 at 8:51 PM
OK, so I have learned only this past hour of a Gale Sondergaard film called Christmas Holiday starring Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly, and I feel as if reality has been hiding it from me.
(Amusingly enough, Mrs. Kelly herself called it out to me.)
(Amusingly enough, Mrs. Kelly herself called it out to me.)
Always good to learn that no matter how unseemly large a stick I sometimes think I've got up my fundament about language, someone will waltz in here with an entire sequoia up theirs.
February 15, 2026 at 8:40 PM
Always good to learn that no matter how unseemly large a stick I sometimes think I've got up my fundament about language, someone will waltz in here with an entire sequoia up theirs.
For the record, the pangram is absolute bullshit.
Dudes, dudettes, and dudices, don't post today's playable words, like, OK?
On what planet is ARIGHT not a word?
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February 15, 2026 at 7:49 PM
For the record, the pangram is absolute bullshit.
This is very wow.
Hey @bcdreyer.social how do we feel about Pittsburgh’s dropping the infinitive? It’s bad enough when you hear people say “X needs done” but it even bleeds into COUNTY documents.
“if your tax bill making address needs revised…” 😱
“if your tax bill making address needs revised…” 😱
February 15, 2026 at 6:53 PM
This is very wow.
Dudes, dudettes, and dudices, don't post today's playable words, like, OK?
On what planet is ARIGHT not a word?
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February 15, 2026 at 6:52 PM
Dudes, dudettes, and dudices, don't post today's playable words, like, OK?
BTW, Santa Monica kicks off far more apartment-clinging dust than Manhattan.
February 15, 2026 at 6:38 PM
BTW, Santa Monica kicks off far more apartment-clinging dust than Manhattan.
One doesn't even have to mount a hill or die thereon to assert that Ira Levin was a freaking master.
Now, Roman, you stop bending Guy's ear with your Modjeska stories!
February 15, 2026 at 6:26 PM
One doesn't even have to mount a hill or die thereon to assert that Ira Levin was a freaking master.
The better people prefer "catamite."
I have a friend who describes people she advises as “mentees” and the term always makes me cringe. I always miss mentee on the first pass of NYTimes Spelling Bee because I don’t want the word to exist.
February 15, 2026 at 6:18 PM
The better people prefer "catamite."
Also, you don't get to deem DADO and DIDO too obscure to play and then enable FOOFARAW.
Speaking of verbification, it's been explained to me (I think by @jessesword.com) how "google" is a playable word, but it still makes me furrow my brow.
Though not as much as the odious "mentee" makes me furrow my brow.
Though even I know that "mecca" and "morocco" are generic nouns.
Though not as much as the odious "mentee" makes me furrow my brow.
Though even I know that "mecca" and "morocco" are generic nouns.
February 15, 2026 at 6:00 PM
Also, you don't get to deem DADO and DIDO too obscure to play and then enable FOOFARAW.
On what planet is ARIGHT not a word?
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February 15, 2026 at 5:20 PM
On what planet is ARIGHT not a word?
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