lipstick on a pig

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Thu, Sep 11, 2008 at 9:22 AM, Doug_Harris <cats22 at stny.rr.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 5:53 PM, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>>
>> I just wrote this up as a Slate "Explainer":
>>
>> http://www.slate.com/id/2199805/
>>
>> Space didn't allow for acknowledgments of ADS-L assistance . . .
>
> Ben -- I'm curious: Why would an online article have a
> length restriction? One of the beauties of the internet
> is its _lack_ of such restrictions.
> Just wondering.

It all depends on the venue. I can let it all hang out in a post on
Language Log or in my Visual Thesaurus column, but Slate dictates
length of articles based on the rubric they appear under. "The
Explainer" runs at about 500 words, while "The Good Word" (which both
Jesse Sheidlower and I have contributed to) goes up to about 800
words. That's just the editorial style that they've chosen, and it
works for them.

Even the online OED has space restrictions. :->


--Ben Zimmer

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org