[ SECRET POST #3703 ]

[case]

⌈ 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.

Comments

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

[cbrachyrhynchos]

"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."