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Department of Corrections Department

It has come to my attention that there is a mistake in a recent post (in the second paragraph, “to work” is repeated is repeated). How this error got past the line editor, the copy editor, the managing editor, and the editor-in-chief here at mere cat, I'll never know. Probably what really happened is that the poor sap whose job it is to carry the finished pixels from the mere cat home office to the server tripped and dropped the package. Rather than telling anyone, he put the pieces back together as best he could. Oh, well. No harm done.

Still, I am calling for a full investigation.

That post was written like most of them—built up from fragments. My method is to splatter the page with key words and half-finished sentences, and eventually edit my way to complete sentences. Then I start moving the sentences around. Then paragraphs. And so on. Posts aren't so much written as rewritten.

I once read a list of metaphors that describe working styles. I use what is called the “pearl” method in which a tiny irritant is built upon layer by layer until a beautiful object is created. That describes my method except that the end result isn't anything you're likely to see adorning, let's say, Audrey Hepburn's neck.

It's because of the incessant editing that things like the doubled “to work” occur. Actually reading the post through would have helped, wouldn't it? I sure can't depend on a software solution. One of the titles that came in for criticism in that piece was Word. Word features a spelling and grammar checker, which can flag doubled words. It cannot, however, flag doubled phrases. I checked.

Like I said, no real harm done, and hey I got a whole post out of it! Is this where you say w00t?