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
Trump posted a video depicting the first Black president and his wife as apes and his excuse for this is that it's a riff on The Lion King, a movie that does not feature any apes. Somehow this was a one-day story and we've already moved on.
February 13, 2026 at 3:30 AM
Trump posted a video depicting the first Black president and his wife as apes and his excuse for this is that it's a riff on The Lion King, a movie that does not feature any apes. Somehow this was a one-day story and we've already moved on.
A fun thing is that gnome and gnomic are etymologically unrelated but they're both short.
February 13, 2026 at 3:39 AM
A fun thing is that gnome and gnomic are etymologically unrelated but they're both short.
maybe he means the lid and not the actual seat...?
February 13, 2026 at 3:28 AM
maybe he means the lid and not the actual seat...?
[Nathan Fillion gif goes here]
CBP officer faces federal charges over allegations he harbored an unauthorized immigrant who was also his girlfriend and niece.
CBP officer faces federal charges over allegations he harbored an unauthorized immigrant who was also his girlfriend and niece
The Justice Department alleges that CBP officer and supervisor Andres Wilkinson had been living in Laredo, Texas, with a woman who had overstayed her visa and is now in the U.S. illegally.
cbsn.ws
February 13, 2026 at 3:21 AM
[Nathan Fillion gif goes here]
godDAMMIT
[f'ing typos]
[not gonna repost, it wasn't all that brilliant to begin with]
[f'ing typos]
[not gonna repost, it wasn't all that brilliant to begin with]
February 13, 2026 at 3:18 AM
godDAMMIT
[f'ing typos]
[not gonna repost, it wasn't all that brilliant to begin with]
[f'ing typos]
[not gonna repost, it wasn't all that brilliant to begin with]
The judges will accept this answer.
Halfly pretentious-witted?
February 13, 2026 at 3:16 AM
The judges will accept this answer.
Once more (well, once more today) for the dinnertime/bedtime/overnight crowd.
Featuring a very special cameo by Prunella Scales.
Featuring a very special cameo by Prunella Scales.
in the blink of an eye
[things seen and watched and read and thought]
open.substack.com
February 13, 2026 at 3:08 AM
Once more (well, once more today) for the dinnertime/bedtime/overnight crowd.
Featuring a very special cameo by Prunella Scales.
Featuring a very special cameo by Prunella Scales.
Muting is self-care.
February 13, 2026 at 2:45 AM
Muting is self-care.
Pak! Pak! Pak!
When Ds are back in charge, they have to change everything. No moderate half-measures. Just relentless razing of the corrupt institutions that enriched the worst people in the world and propped up fascism.
A few suggestions...
A few suggestions...
February 13, 2026 at 2:43 AM
Pak! Pak! Pak!
“You can love literature and ignore Wuthering Heights.”
Thanks, sis.
Thanks, sis.
February 13, 2026 at 2:39 AM
“You can love literature and ignore Wuthering Heights.”
Thanks, sis.
Thanks, sis.
I’ve been playing ADIT in Scrabble for aeons, and I could not for a skillion dollars have told you what it meant just now till I looked it up (and discovered that I did once know what it meant).
February 13, 2026 at 1:56 AM
I’ve been playing ADIT in Scrabble for aeons, and I could not for a skillion dollars have told you what it meant just now till I looked it up (and discovered that I did once know what it meant).
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
As we dig into this scandal, can we revisit the question about why the president's son-in-law, who has no formal role in this administration, keeps showing up at high-level negotiations with actual world leaders?
Breaking WSJ:
The highly classified whistleblower complaint against Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is related to a conversation intercepted last spring in which two foreign nationals discussed Jared Kushner, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
The highly classified whistleblower complaint against Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is related to a conversation intercepted last spring in which two foreign nationals discussed Jared Kushner, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
Gabbard Whistleblower Complaint Based on Intercepted Conversation About Jared Kushner
The substance of the conversation, which covered in part issues related to Iran, isn’t known.
www.wsj.com
February 12, 2026 at 10:23 PM
As we dig into this scandal, can we revisit the question about why the president's son-in-law, who has no formal role in this administration, keeps showing up at high-level negotiations with actual world leaders?
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
The Pride flag at the Stonewall Monument is re-raised!
New Yorkers won’t let Donald Trump erase LGBTQ+ history, or trample the rights of our LGBTQ+ neighbors.
New Yorkers won’t let Donald Trump erase LGBTQ+ history, or trample the rights of our LGBTQ+ neighbors.
February 12, 2026 at 10:16 PM
The Pride flag at the Stonewall Monument is re-raised!
New Yorkers won’t let Donald Trump erase LGBTQ+ history, or trample the rights of our LGBTQ+ neighbors.
New Yorkers won’t let Donald Trump erase LGBTQ+ history, or trample the rights of our LGBTQ+ neighbors.
I'm still thinking about what a weird, loathsome freak Pam Bondi is, so I guess she's really good at her job of being a weird, loathsome freak.
February 13, 2026 at 12:30 AM
I'm still thinking about what a weird, loathsome freak Pam Bondi is, so I guess she's really good at her job of being a weird, loathsome freak.
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
“The Constitution does not permit the government to arrest thousands of individuals and then disregard their constitutional rights because it would be too challenging to honor those rights.”
BREAKING: Judge Nancy Brasel, a Trump appointee, has issued a TRO in the Minnesota access-to-counsel case about treatment at Whipple.
"It appears that in planning for Operation Metro Surge, the government failed to plan for the constitutional rights of its civil detainees."
"It appears that in planning for Operation Metro Surge, the government failed to plan for the constitutional rights of its civil detainees."
February 13, 2026 at 12:24 AM
“The Constitution does not permit the government to arrest thousands of individuals and then disregard their constitutional rights because it would be too challenging to honor those rights.”
Always fun to block people who use the word “illegal” as a noun.
February 12, 2026 at 10:35 PM
Always fun to block people who use the word “illegal” as a noun.
February 12, 2026 at 10:12 PM
Agatha Christie, Geraldine McEwan and Prunella Scales (though not, alas, together this time), Russell Tovey's ears, and (other people's) typos.
A little something for everyone.
A little something for everyone.
in the blink of an eye
[things seen and watched and read and thought]
open.substack.com
February 12, 2026 at 10:06 PM
Agatha Christie, Geraldine McEwan and Prunella Scales (though not, alas, together this time), Russell Tovey's ears, and (other people's) typos.
A little something for everyone.
A little something for everyone.
‼️
February 12, 2026 at 9:12 PM
‼️
I've disgorged the contents of my brain into a few paragraphs, and a plethora of footnotes, with a little something, I hope, for everyone.
in the blink of an eye
[things seen and watched and read and thought]
open.substack.com
February 12, 2026 at 7:45 PM
I've disgorged the contents of my brain into a few paragraphs, and a plethora of footnotes, with a little something, I hope, for everyone.
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
I converted to Catholicism two weeks ago. Here's why I hate Jesus and the Pope.
February 12, 2026 at 5:25 PM
I converted to Catholicism two weeks ago. Here's why I hate Jesus and the Pope.
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
Opinion | Epstein's friends aren't just pedophiles—they're also job creators.
by Bret Stephens
by Bret Stephens
February 12, 2026 at 5:22 PM
Opinion | Epstein's friends aren't just pedophiles—they're also job creators.
by Bret Stephens
by Bret Stephens
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
I have a hard time understanding how our culture has somehow produced fans of this person. He’s so clearly and horribly diseased
Fuentes then fantasizes about “breeding gulags”: “So just like Hitler imprisoned Gypsies, Jews, communists, you know, all of his political rivals, we have to do the same thing with women… They go to the breeding gulags. The good ones will be liberated. The bad ones will toil in the mines forever.”
February 12, 2026 at 5:15 PM
I have a hard time understanding how our culture has somehow produced fans of this person. He’s so clearly and horribly diseased
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
“This is the good stuff!” — @bcdreyer.social (America’s Copy Editor)
“Not many people could write about grammar and make it so entertaining!” — Marsanne Reid (My Mom)
“Not many people could write about grammar and make it so entertaining!” — Marsanne Reid (My Mom)
The passive voice is widely misunderstood, even by professional writers and editors. A deep dive—with zombies and weasels?!—into the mysteries of active and passive voices.
Zombies and weasels: Why the passive voice is so confusing
[Mistakes have been made, even by experts!]
greydanus.substack.com
February 12, 2026 at 4:44 PM
“This is the good stuff!” — @bcdreyer.social (America’s Copy Editor)
“Not many people could write about grammar and make it so entertaining!” — Marsanne Reid (My Mom)
“Not many people could write about grammar and make it so entertaining!” — Marsanne Reid (My Mom)
Sometimes the answer to the question "How should this sentence be punctuated?" is "It should be entirely rewritten."
#copyediting
#copyediting
February 12, 2026 at 3:58 PM
Sometimes the answer to the question "How should this sentence be punctuated?" is "It should be entirely rewritten."
#copyediting
#copyediting