Author Archives: Mignon

Podcasting Is Alive and Well

A podcasting company called Podango announced a couple of days ago that they’re going under (rudely giving all their podcasters just three days notice — during the holidays — to back up and move their files). And now a few … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 11 Comments

Signed Books for the Holidays

People have been asking if they can get signed Grammar Girl books for the holidays, so I checked with my publisher and got a green light! WHAT YOU GET Here’s how it will work: I’ll sell each signed book for … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments

How to Download Podcasts from Your iPhone

The new iPhone update includes software that lets you download podcasts right from iTunes to your iPhone. No longer must you hook your phone up to your computer, download podcasts to the computer, and then transfer them to your iPhone … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

What People Forget About Twitter

[Note: I’ve had this post in my drafts folder for seven months, and now the Motrin fiasco has prompted me to finish it.] I sometimes hear from business people who believe Twitter isn’t that important because even the most popular … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

Are You So Busy That You Write Sloppy Messages?

If you think you’re too busy to keep your e-mail and text messages feeling professional, think again. You can’t be as busy as Obama was during the campaign, yet he still managed it. According to the New York Times, despite … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Political Speech

The opening sentence below from an AP article today got me thinking about political speech. “Cease-fire” doesn’t mean what I would think it means if the countries have been shooting at each other all week and the cease-fire is still … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 1 Comment

“Crazy Sarah”

Meet Sarah, a copyeditor with a little too much passion: Note: Since a lot of people didn’t get the joke, “Chicago 6.18” refers to the Chicago Manual of Style section on commas. Having to explain the joke seems like a … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 13 Comments

When I Twitter

There’s an interesting new tool at Xefer that makes a chart of your Twitter messages (tweets) so you can see the times and days when you are most active on Twitter. Here’s my chart:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Comments Off on When I Twitter

Book Burning

What would politicians call a book burning? Cellulosic biofuel research. Image of the book burning memorial in Berlin by Venana. Some rights reserved.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Comments Off on Book Burning

30,000 Words Every Month

This fact was pointed out to me a few days ago and continues to blow my mind: We produce 30,000 words of edited copy every month at Quick and Dirty Tips. Thirty thousand words — about half a book or … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments