fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3703 ]

[ SECRET POST #3703 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3703 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

__________________________________________________

02.

__________________________________________________

03.

__________________________________________________

04.

__________________________________________________

05.

__________________________________________________

06.

__________________________________________________

07.

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 14 secrets from Secret Submission Post #529.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

To be fair, that's an idiom that an editor should have caught.

Hi, I'm an editor for a living. "To slip" is an entirely appropriate verb, and honestly I can't think of another that would better describe the event in question, nor immediately a recasting of the sentence that wouldn't be an exercise in mental gymnastics.

Like this: "You leave your used condoms on the floor, so we end up slipping on them."

Clunky. And using a compound sentence when a simple should suffice is counterintuitive.

Trip.

Trip does not mean the same thing as slip.

Tripping on a condom vs slipping on one is a very different action

"Slip on" has the double meaning of "to put on (a garment) quickly" as well as "to slide on or down a slippery surface." (both Merriam-Webster) It's not immediately obvious that condoms stay slippery that long.

As editors, our job is to minimize potential ambiguities, even at the expense of additional words (unless you're writing poetry or comedy, where the wordplay is appropriate.) That's something you already know since it's in THE FUCKING STYLEBOOK (any stylebook, AP, APA, or Chicago.)

Trip is linked as related verb, so it's not a "very different action," a subtly different action at most. But I'll admit I wasn't giving it my full attention in five minutes before dinner. Change that weak-ass adjective to something that describes how the quality of the condom supports the verb in this case. Add a two-word prepositional phrase to make the action unambiguous. "We slip when stepping on your slimy condoms." That gives the full picture of what's going on with minimal changes to the sentence structure, no change to the active verb, and only two words added to the wordcount.

Or, you can continue to yell at readers forced to puzzle out ambiguity among two different, well-documented, and fully idiomatic meanings for "slip on."

How would you even trip on a condom?

Someone very well-endowed is wearing it, standing on a lower surface so that their dick is at floor level?

Er... if you're an editor for a living who can't think their way around something that simple, I'm a little concerned for your clients.

You skipped a critical word in the sentence to which you are responding. And some of the sentences suggested, while accurate, have been utter garbaage in terms of pleasant short-reading.

Most of them are an improvement on the the original, though. As an editor, I would've thought you'd appreciate that. I'm a littl skeptical of the whole "editor for a living" thing, though.

"Many people leave used condoms on the floor. We often slip on them."

This works better, as ending the sentence with "them" breaks up the unintentional idiom. The word order of the idiom, if it were the other meaning, would be "slip them on." It is more clearly not this meaning.

Used condoms make us slip. Not as colloquial but still concise and gets the message across without that instant wtf reaction most people would have. Myself included,

"Used condoms make us slip" is just about the worst, least informative thing I've read today. How? In what way? The original sentence might make some people do a double-take, but this actively raises questions.

NAYRT

I mean, they could expand that to, "Used condoms left on hotel room floors often cause housekeeping staff to slip."

You realize they want people to keep reading, right? It's a puff piece not a technical manual.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ SECRET POST #3703 ]

Re: Things that make you go "What is WRONG with people??"

Re: Things that make you go "What is WRONG with people??"

Re: Things that make you go "What is WRONG with people??"

Re: Things that make you go "What is WRONG with people??"

Re: Things that make you go "What is WRONG with people??"

Re: Things that make you go "What is WRONG with people??"

Re: Things that make you go "What is WRONG with people??"

Re: Things that make you go "What is WRONG with people??"

Re: Things that make you go "What is WRONG with people??"

Re: Things that make you go "What is WRONG with people??"

Re: Things that make you go "What is WRONG with people??"

Re: Things that make you go "What is WRONG with people??"

Re: Things that make you go "What is WRONG with people??"

Re: Things that make you go "What is WRONG with people??"

Re: Things that make you go "What is WRONG with people??"

Re: Things that make you go "What is WRONG with people??"

Re: Things that make you go "What is WRONG with people??"

Re: Things that make you go "What is WRONG with people??"