MikeL

LOL

Cia's link in "Latest Story Updates" also does not work.

Nope. None of them work for me.

There seems to be a problem with he story links. Each one I click on results in the message: Oops! Something went wrong! We could not find the story you were attempting to view. Need Help? Our help documentation Contact the community administrator

I would agree with you there, Kitt. An insincere apology benefits neither party. You might as well be a politician.

I can think of a few things, C J. What was the final outcome of the cartel wars? Did Gonzalez get a big promotion? Did Frank pick up new clients? Has Atlantis been rebuilt? Did Ned fly in from Carnarvon to oversee the work? Did the insurance company balk at two rebuilds in one year? Did the gold stash survive the storm? How did Trevor and Shane avoid confiscatory taxes? Most important, what are our four heroes doing now? I'm looking forward to it.

Being sorry should be a function of remorse, not fear. If you are sorry, say so. If you are afraid, run.

James, thanks for your thoughtful comments. Signals intelligence is an excellent means of keeping up with what your enemies are planning. Our landline, cellphone, an internet infrastructure provide the tools needed for such spying. But you should expect some hysteria from the American public when they learn that their government has turned from spying on our enemies to spying on our citizens. Such domestic intelligence activity is the lifeblood of the police state. Dave, spying on private citizens and selling that intelligence to others is big business. Google and Facebook are following the lead of - and cooperating with - the government because they need political cover for their activities. Their lobbying and political contributions ensure that their commercial spying will continue to be directed against the citizens whom the politicians supposedly represent. I am not hysterical, merely livid.

I would think Trevor's insuror would gladly pay for the second time. More that that, the insurance company should sign Trevor and Shane to be spokespersons. That would be much better than Flo.

Hack! Cough!

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See a new post from the Writer Support Team here.

Westie, I hope you will do well with the diet and that you will feel much better as a result. I think aquatics is a good suggestion. Many of my older friends with arthritis cannot tolerate any exercise outside a pool. You should check it out...it may give you a chance to exercise joints without a lot of pain. Tell Paya I said to treat you right. Do I get another gold star?

Don't expect too much, C J.

I use Open Office Writer, but keep the file I receive from C J in Word format. As I read and find an obvious error, I just type over the incorrect word. The Open Office editor strikes through the word I am changing and inserts the correct word underlined, so it's easy for C J to see what I've changed. He can then decide to make the change in his master copy or not. I can also insert comments in the margin if I have a question or suggestion for C J to consider. After the first reading, I run the Open Office spellcheck and consider each "error" it identifies. The majority of these are proper names or words that are not in the spellcheck's dictionary. I will ignore proper names, add words to the dictionary, or change any misspelled word it finds. Probably 99% of spellcheck's "errors" are not errors at all. Then I read the chapter a second time. It always surprises me how many things I find to change the second time...sometimes nearly as many as the first time. When that is done, I e-mail the annotated Word document back to C J. Then I wait like everyone else.

Spellcheck programs catch about 10% of the errors that I find. All the homophones in English evade the best spellcheck. Reading slowly and deliberately are the only approach that works for me.

I don't know who's in the know. I read through a chapter twice, then return a marked-up copy to C J. I don't know who does what else when. C J has a number of people proofreading. I assume some are faster than I, some slower. The final editing is done by Emoe. C J reviews the comments of each team member. Does he send it to one person at a time? Does he send it to everyone at the same time? If C J is waiting for someone to finish, even he doesn't know when.

At my age, I can't get too concerned. Any other comment from me is likely to be considered political.

Some "personalities" do just what you say. They reveal some sordid aspect of their lives, then become indignant when a reporter inquires or writes about it...even to the point of filing a lawsuit. So they seek an outrageous solution to their outrageous conduct.

Nick is right. In fact, after years of proofreading, it becomes virtually impossible to read for pleasure. Even a practiced speed reader slows down considerably and stumbles over every typo and grammatical error in a story.

Looks nice. Torch Lake, Summer 2006

Happy Birthday, Kidderminster!

So, John, what part of this little old country will you be visiting?

Now you are obligated to tell us about the party. Did you attend? Surely you did, there were people there...potential new friends. Whom did you meet?