This forum for language lovers surveys such hot-button topics as “Friends of Bill – or Bill’s”; “Hopefully: Cause for Despair?”; “Chairperson, Chairwoman, or Chair: Which Is Best?” as well as racier ones (is a popular term for oral sex one word or two?) not printable here. Subscribers ponder whether to spell “dis,” the slang term for “to show disrespect,” with one “s” or two. Founder and editor Mary Beth Protomastro, 34, issues no edicts: “Copy editors reflect, they don’t invent.”
Copy Editor is one of the nation’s 5,000 subscription newsletters – a growing group that ranges from Out and About, for gay travelers, to Sludge, for oil-refinery executives. Could Copy Editor be a sign that grammar is becoming trendy? A remarkable 80 percent of subscribers renew each year, for a hefty $69. Among the fans: Merriam-Webster Editor in Chief Frederick C. Mish, who says Copy Editor gives him “a feeling about what’s going on out there amongst people who love words for a living.”
These people love some words more than others. The current Copy Editor lists “taboo words” at New York Magazine under new editor Kurt Andersen (celeb, intone) and under former editor Edward Kosner (nosh, publicist). Kosner brought some of his list to Esquire, where he says he still changes “purchase to buy and acquire to get.” Thanks to an issue that excerpted Playboy’s style rules, subscribers know that Marilyn Monroe, despite being dead, is a Playmate, not a former Playmate. “Once a Playmate, always a Playmate. Never refer to a former Playmate,” warns Playboy’s style manual. As in, “The Playmate, now a chairwoman, hopefully said she wanted to meet some Friends of Bill – before the Oh-Ohs.”
