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Is that why they call it dummy type?
A not-quite-finished headline from the Springfield, Ohio, News-Sun (dated Aug. 24 but still on the website in this form):

We're laughing with you, fellow editors, not at you; everyone who works on deadline eventually misses one of these. Even so, the Law of Prescriptivist Retaliation -- also known as Hartman's, McKean's, Skitt's, or Muphry's Law -- all but guarantees that I'll be publishing something mockable in the next week or two. (Or maybe the retribution will fall upon those who sent me the link. Thanks, Vicki Croke and Mike Pingree, and good luck evading the Law, you guys!)
Rules and realities of English usage from Boston Globe Ideas columnist
Jan Freeman.
Jan Freeman, a former Boston Globe editor, has been writing the weekly
column “The Word” since 1997. E-mail her at freeman@globe.com.







