Benjamin Dreyer
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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
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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!
Sometimes the answer to the question "How should this sentence be punctuated?" is "It should be entirely rewritten."

#copyediting
February 12, 2026 at 3:58 PM
In the immortal words of the late, great Zsa Zsa Gabor:

I hate dat qvin.
February 12, 2026 at 3:57 PM
The thing I realized yesterday about the Worst Person in the World concept is that you have to rotate them.

Like, yesterday Pam Bondi was certainly the worst person in the world.

But today might well be someone else's turn!

I'm thinking Ron Johnson, but it's early yet.
February 12, 2026 at 3:53 PM
today's random theater photo:

David Cryer and Chris Callan in the 1973 revival of The Desert Song
February 12, 2026 at 3:27 PM
It's Simon MacCorkindale's birthday. ❤️
February 12, 2026 at 3:25 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
you can just not fund this shit under any circumstances

you don’t have to pretend they need better training, or are doing an important job incorrectly

they’re just racist thugs doing ethnic cleansing and the whole gang should be in jail
More than 400 people, including hundreds of citizens, were “sorted” at gun point into racial and ethnic groups by 200 ICE agents who fired flash-bang grenades into cars with people inside, pointed guns at children & demanded their zip tied parents not comfort them. apple.news/Ausdx6kWtT0e...
Idaho families sue over immigration raid that swept up hundreds, including U.S. citizens — NBC News
About 400 people, including children and U.S. citizens, were detained for four hours while they were denied food and water in the raid, according to the lawsuit.
apple.news
February 12, 2026 at 2:37 AM
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
I don’t think we should allow the secret police to round people up and sort them by race
More than 400 people, including hundreds of citizens, were “sorted” at gun point into racial and ethnic groups by 200 ICE agents who fired flash-bang grenades into cars with people inside, pointed guns at children & demanded their zip tied parents not comfort them. apple.news/Ausdx6kWtT0e...
Idaho families sue over immigration raid that swept up hundreds, including U.S. citizens — NBC News
About 400 people, including children and U.S. citizens, were detained for four hours while they were denied food and water in the raid, according to the lawsuit.
apple.news
February 12, 2026 at 2:32 AM
I’m always (well, let’s just say often) delighted to see books hitting the bestseller lists, but I’ll always giggle over the breathless “instant bestseller!” thing.

I mean, they’re almost always instant.

“Schlepped along for months and finally hit the list!” would be a novelty.
February 12, 2026 at 1:27 AM
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
Just take a look at this and remember, Pam Bondi's concern here was not with any of the victims of these crimes but with the nosy Democrats who actually gave a shit about them.
February 12, 2026 at 12:38 AM
One of the things I appreciated watching the Bondi debacle is how gleefully all the Democrats displayed their utter loathing of her.

Really, it was spirit-lifting.
February 12, 2026 at 1:03 AM
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
I better not see this bitch on Dancing With the Stars
February 11, 2026 at 11:48 PM
Lev Parnas is what Elves eat, right?
February 11, 2026 at 11:39 PM
A little wandering scrolling just now led me to the notorious Fanny Cradock–vs.–Gwen Troake clip, and JESUSGOD.

(I've seen it innumerable times, but it never ceases to be viscerally horrific.)
February 11, 2026 at 11:31 PM
🫢
Over on threads someone just use ai;dr and we all need to adopt that right quick
February 11, 2026 at 11:26 PM
I think that some (not all!) writers wildly overestimate how interested other people might be in their F E E L I N G S about the P R O C E S S of writing and the S T R U G G L E S, oh, the S T R U G G L E S.

Like, get on with it.
February 11, 2026 at 11:02 PM
Oh hey, just stumbled upon "'talent' is a gatekeeping mechanism," and (a) well, duh, and (b) I can't stop laughing.
February 11, 2026 at 9:15 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
A government of the assholes, by the assholes, for the assholes.
Per @pabloreports.bsky.social: Bondi has a “burn book” organized by the names of Democratic lawmakers so she can attack them when they ask her questions.
February 11, 2026 at 6:13 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
February 11, 2026 at 7:58 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
Cohen to Bondi: "You tried to investigate Ms. Good's widow and you tried to investigate Mr. Pretti. They were executed like Kristi Noem executed her dog."
February 11, 2026 at 4:22 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
I have heard of a no bill but zero votes is new to me
February 11, 2026 at 4:01 PM
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
NEGUSE: AG Bondi, that man works for you now, right? The man in that video from J6 yelling 'kill them!' at cops. His name is Jared Wise.

BONDI: He does work for us, yes. I believe he was pardoned

NEGUSE: And you expect hard-working police officers to believe you take law enforcement seriously?
February 11, 2026 at 6:31 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
The contemptuous Pam Bondi has made it exceedingly, disgustingly clear it’s far more important to praise Donald Trump and his greatness than to investigate his criminal participation in Jeffrey Epstein’s child sex rings. The fact that a person like this heads the Justice Department turns my stomach.
February 11, 2026 at 6:20 PM
"Thar ain't no reason fer war, unless us poor folks fight the rich uns for the way they air bleedin' us to death with the prices for meat and bread."

—Lula Vollmer, Sun-Up (1923)
February 11, 2026 at 5:28 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
Impeach Kash Patel
Swalwell plays Bondi a clip of Kash Patel *lying under oath* about how many times Trump's name appears in the Epstein files
February 11, 2026 at 4:55 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
it is so embarrassing that we can’t get trump on the epstein stuff. After access Hollywood and Miss teen USA and the E Jean Carroll verdict, it’s like we let Jeffrey Dahmer go three times and then found him with a hundred human heads and we‘re standing there like are you SURE these aren’t yours
February 11, 2026 at 4:36 PM