Friday, April 20, 2012

THE LONG-AWAITED (BUT TEMPORARY) RETURN OF THE ALOT5MA FRIDAY GRAMMAR RODEO: Eric Althoff, formerly of Larry Flynt's Hustler Magazine, spoke at the 16th National Conference of the American Copy Editors Society, and they, too, have a style guide:
Hustler’s stylebook is similar to others, Althoff said, offering guidance to writers and editors at the magazine on word choice for its readers. Among those at Hustler:

— blow job vs. blowjob
— porno vs. porn
— phone-sex vs. phone sex
— girl next door vs. girl-next-door
— cover babe vs. coverbabe

In each of these examples, Hustler prefers the latter usage. On occasion, the magazine would update its stylebook. For example, it now uses “hos” rather than “ho’s.”

Indeed, Hustler will bend its style rules on occasion. Althoff said that the magazine prefers “come” as a verb and “cum” as a noun in references to ejaculation. But on the magazine’s cover, it would allow “cum” in either situation to get the attention of potential buyers. “‘Cum’ is going to jump out at consumers,” he said.
In which case, grab a poncho.  Related: Sarah D. Bunting, on proofreading for Penthouse.

33 comments:

  1. Jordan9:14 AM

    Clearly the ALOTT5MA grammar readers skew a bit older than the ALOTT5MA spelling readers.

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  2. bristlesage9:30 AM

    Having given this some thought, I realize I refer to a pornographic movie as "a porno", but the genre as "porn".  Hmmm.  Anyway, not that anyone's asking, but I agree with all of Hustler's calls here, with a special love for "girl-next-door".  My company's president has decided it's just easier to leave out the hyphens all the time, so that's now our house style. It's the only thing about him that's unreasonable, and it's double-plus galling when you know I work for a real estate company.  Not hyphenating "two-story" in "two-story building" makes me crazy.

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  3. We make it a point to keep all our content family friendly during that week.  The other 51 weeks, not so much.

    Also, and I might as well note it here: the speller about whose emotional state we excessively speculated last year, much to her and her family's expressed chagrin, did not qualify again this year. That said, we have been duly chastened, and will try really hard not to play long-distance psychologist again.

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  4. Tosy and Cosh10:07 AM

    When I was just out of college and trying to get an entry-level job in publishing I went on an interview for a "editorial assistant" position--ground floor job at a, and I thought this was odd, unnamed publication.

    When I got there the magazine was revealed to be Swank, which is as to Hustler as Hustler is to Playboy. I got through the first interview and the editing test of a porn star's sex column before I politely excused myself, the thought of working amongst hard-core porn every day more than I couuld stomach.

    Of course I never got that entry-level publishing job and after some twists and turns ended up writing proposals for a Big 4 accounting firm, which is neither interesting or rewarding, so maybe I should have toughed it out for a few years for the resume?

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  5. A year ago, I went on a date with a woman who had previously run a website dedicated to rating escort services.  "So, how did that work," I asked.  "Oh, they'd write in, 'I was in Chicago and met with Bambi from so-and-so agency,' and then describe exactly what they did in great detail."  I didn't get to ask her about her style book.

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  6. Marsha11:02 AM

    I once went on a date with an attorney who specialized in public masturbation cases. I barely spoke for the first 20 minutes after he told me that for fear I'd make some sort of inappropriate "That's what she said"-style comment.

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  7. You could have single-handedly ended the relationship right there.

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  8. Bet he makes money hand over fist.

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  9. It's a good thing you didn't just spurt something out.

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  10. I understand those cases tend to take less time to reach their climax.

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  11. Heather K11:56 AM

    Now I am just cackling to myself on the couch outloud!  I scared the cat.

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  12. Do these cases always feature a happy ending?

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  13. bristlesage12:31 PM

    These folks weren't just all pro se?

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  14. Tosy and Cosh12:32 PM

    So he tries cases about men who stroke their penises to ejaculation in public?

    Wait. I think I did that wrong.

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  15. lisased12:54 PM

    Russ is clearly feeling better.

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  16. And you thought YOUR clients were jerk-offs.

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  17. Anonymous1:39 PM

    And you thought YOUR clients were jerk-offs.

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  18. Oops. Me again.

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  19. bill.1:54 PM

    take a load off annie, indeed

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  20. The Pathetic Earthling2:23 PM

    Sounds like he had his hands full!

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  21. My first job when I was a baby associate was policing trademarks on the internet.  Given the clients we had (a male exotic dance troop of some renound and one of the largest gaming companies in the world) I was exposed to an exttraordinary amount of porn.  What people never realize is that, yes, you look at porn for a living, but it is never the porn you want to see, and while *your* kink is sexy to you, other people's kinks are ooky.  Also, given the first client, there was an overwhelming portion of gay male porn.

    I did get to shut down a child prostitution ring in Europe with Interpol...that was fun though.  Remember, when in doubt, don't infringe on a third party's IP rights if you want to run a child prostitution ring.

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  22. sconstant2:37 PM

    In which case, grab a poncho.

    I think I just read somewhere that "ponch" is the preferred usage.  No, wait, that was something else.

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  23. Jordan3:28 PM

    Now this has gotten out of hand

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  24. Kudos to Adam for another form of editing. Perfect placement of this post right above Isaac's from yesterday. Keep up the good work!

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  25. I made a comment referencing that from my phone and I see it in the comments reading from the phone, but from the computer it isn't here.

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  26. Renee7:59 PM

    Thank you for all these comments -- I had to wait until I got home to read them as I was afraid of my work filters, and I'm glad I did.  Definitely got a few giggles out of this post.

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  27. Meghan8:32 PM

    There's a separate comments page for the mobile version, somehow.  When I want to comment on the real site, not the mobile one, the address is throwingthings.blogspot.com/?m=0.  The mobile site ends with ?m=1. 

    I wasted a lot of pith on the mobile site, I tell you.  A lot of pith.

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  28. spacewoman8:34 PM

    When I was a baby associate, my firm represented Playgirl, and two of my friends (but not me, boo!) were assigned to the Brad Pitt case and had to spend a lot of time researching it.  I'm pretty sure that IS the porn you want to see.

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  29. Meghan8:36 PM

    But wouldn't girl-next-door be adjectival and girl next door be a noun?  As is, "Crystal is the girl next door, innocent and sweet, until So-and-So does something to defile her" vs "Crystal and her girl-next-door face hide her dirty secrets" or something?  

    Man, I suck at porn(o) copy.  

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  30. Marsha9:17 PM

    Aaaaaaaaand this is what I was talking about.

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  31. Years ago, I was doing an assignment for a Congressional committee on how many X-rated sites had "Over 18" notices on them.  Knowing that most of the project was wasted on me, I drafted five young male staffers to assist - and I'm sure they are still talking about their best few days at work.

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  32. Samir Patel2:58 PM

    HAHAHAHAHA.  Hahahaha.  Ha.  ha.  Sorry, my inner fourteen year old escaped again.

    [To add to the effect, I was listening to Weezer's cover of The Weight at the exact moment I noticed that.]

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  33. Samir Patel3:06 PM

    1: Wait, there are enough such cases that there are lawyers who SPECIALIZE in it?
    2: I'd be interested to hear his closing arguments, just so I could count each [un]intended innuendo.
    3: Obligatory Jason Russell link: http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/412210/jackin-it-in-san-diego

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