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
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.
What are we about to hear, Glenn?
February 13, 2026 at 12:54 AM
What are we about to hear, Glenn?
That said, if I see one more person apply the singular "they" to a cow or a goat...
I draw the line at being anxious about misgendering animals. An animal to whom I've not been formally introduced is "it," and it can, I'm sure, cope with that.
I draw the line at being anxious about misgendering animals. An animal to whom I've not been formally introduced is "it," and it can, I'm sure, cope with that.
February 13, 2026 at 12:45 AM
That said, if I see one more person apply the singular "they" to a cow or a goat...
I draw the line at being anxious about misgendering animals. An animal to whom I've not been formally introduced is "it," and it can, I'm sure, cope with that.
I draw the line at being anxious about misgendering animals. An animal to whom I've not been formally introduced is "it," and it can, I'm sure, cope with that.
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.
A superb episode, give or take, as a friend reminded me, Elaine Paige's postmortem blinking.
February 12, 2026 at 10:24 PM
A superb episode, give or take, as a friend reminded me, Elaine Paige's postmortem blinking.
a cousin, of course, to #YHGtBFKMwTS
February 12, 2026 at 10:16 PM
a cousin, of course, to #YHGtBFKMwTS
February 12, 2026 at 10:12 PM
In the Suchet version of Evil Under the Sun he's even younger than on this Marple, and, like a baby German shepherd, he still hasn't grown into those (adorable) things.
February 12, 2026 at 10:10 PM
In the Suchet version of Evil Under the Sun he's even younger than on this Marple, and, like a baby German shepherd, he still hasn't grown into those (adorable) things.
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
‼️
Ha ha ha.
I do always like to think that I'm being mindful of anyone reading me, but I do sometimes wonder whether all or at least most writers aren't simply ultimately talking to themselves.
I do always like to think that I'm being mindful of anyone reading me, but I do sometimes wonder whether all or at least most writers aren't simply ultimately talking to themselves.
February 12, 2026 at 8:26 PM
Ha ha ha.
I do always like to think that I'm being mindful of anyone reading me, but I do sometimes wonder whether all or at least most writers aren't simply ultimately talking to themselves.
I do always like to think that I'm being mindful of anyone reading me, but I do sometimes wonder whether all or at least most writers aren't simply ultimately talking to themselves.
Right, yes, thank you. And this, then, is also the Lettie/Lottie installment!
February 12, 2026 at 8:17 PM
Right, yes, thank you. And this, then, is also the Lettie/Lottie installment!
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)
Thank you.
Better rhythmically, I think, and funnier.
Better rhythmically, I think, and funnier.
February 12, 2026 at 4:21 PM
Thank you.
Better rhythmically, I think, and funnier.
Better rhythmically, I think, and funnier.
I don't know what you call that Simon MacCorkindale–Nicholas Clay type, but it's definitely a type.
February 12, 2026 at 4:20 PM
I don't know what you call that Simon MacCorkindale–Nicholas Clay type, but it's definitely a type.
Though it was very funny last night to be scrolling through Instagram and encountering any number of very placid-looking well-spoken ladies referring to Bondi as The Word We Do Not Type Publicly If We Know What's Good For Us.
February 12, 2026 at 4:16 PM
Though it was very funny last night to be scrolling through Instagram and encountering any number of very placid-looking well-spoken ladies referring to Bondi as The Word We Do Not Type Publicly If We Know What's Good For Us.
[take 2]
Sometimes the answer to the question “How should this sentence be repunctuated?” is “By being entirely rewritten.”
[much better, I think]
Sometimes the answer to the question “How should this sentence be repunctuated?” is “By being entirely rewritten.”
[much better, I think]
February 12, 2026 at 4:14 PM
[take 2]
Sometimes the answer to the question “How should this sentence be repunctuated?” is “By being entirely rewritten.”
[much better, I think]
Sometimes the answer to the question “How should this sentence be repunctuated?” is “By being entirely rewritten.”
[much better, I think]
I wonder if I picked that word up from the Fowlers, because I use it, copyeditorially, *incessantly.*
February 12, 2026 at 4:13 PM
I wonder if I picked that word up from the Fowlers, because I use it, copyeditorially, *incessantly.*
🎶 All who plunder
learn to under-
stand! 🎶
learn to under-
stand! 🎶
The Riff Song - Gordon MacRae
YouTube video by ClassicDamsel
www.youtube.com
February 12, 2026 at 4:10 PM
🎶 All who plunder
learn to under-
stand! 🎶
learn to under-
stand! 🎶