A friend suggested I include some copy editing content. Given my job, you know. While making such a suggestion qualifies Will for the Geek Hall of Fame, the idea isn't a bad one.
(Besides, I arrived in the hall of fame years before. I think. Perhaps I just visited its anteroom.)
My quibble tonight: the word "chitter." Have you ever heard this word used in everyday speech? I haven't. But there it was, in the lead of a story I was editing tonight. The reporter wrote that a small mammal was making noise. That noise was described as "chittering."
According to the dictionary here, that means "twittering" (as in the high-pitched cheeping of a bird) or shaking in the cold. Neither seems to describe the sound this small mammal actually made.
The animal was probably chattering. That is, making "short, indistinct sounds in rapid succession [...squirrels chatter]." (Thanks to Webster's New World Dictionary, fourth edition.) The change was made to the story, but not until I raised a ruckus, and presented the evidence I've just given to you.
Why is any of this important? The word was in the first sentence of the story, and presented a roadblock to those who might read it. "What the hey does "chitter" mean anyway?" I imagine them asking, heading for the dictionary and not reading the rest of the story. My job is to save readers that trip.