GETTING A WORD IN
Only a fool would hope to find the thrills of the jungle in copy editing. Our jobs are stressful, but we never have to fend off lions and only metaphorically shoot poison darts. Sure, we may come to blows about where to put hyphens and commas, but in the main our workdays are not likely to culminate in bloodsport.
But still we encounter a lethal risk: sheer boredom. About 90 percent of what we handle each day is interesting and challenging, but that remaining 10 percent is usually the blandest filler you could possibly imagine: such things as lists of meetings and classes or PR blurbs about local businesses.
Our biggest nemesis on this score is the Military Update column we run in Saturday's paper. The column relentlessly explores the world of TRICARE, which has something to do with military retirees health benefits. I really don't know, because I tune out usually by the third graf. But there is a way to beat this. I just substitute the word "sex" - or better yet, sex! (the juvenile bold italics is great) - for TRICARE in copy.
It works well:
The cloud in an otherwise sunny bill for TRICARE (remember, think sex!) beneficiaries hovers over the retail pharmacy program.
In December, Congress ordered three tiers of premiums for the TRICARE Reserve Select benefits, which are similar to TRICARE Standard fee-for-service coverage.
Because more than $700 million in TRICARE savings were "embedded" in the administration's 2007 defense budget request, the decision to block the increases meant trimming other programs.
An attempt to block the TRICARE fee increases, and the surprise boost in the 2007 pay raise were highlights of subcommittee actions on personnel provisions of the fiscal year 2007 National Defense Authorization Act (HR 5122).
Whether the Senate will approve any part of the administration's TRICARE fee adjustments is still a little uncertain.
What doomed that plan in the House were both the timing and the details, McHugh told Military Update - timing in the sense that the nation is fighting a war and that some of those warriors who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan soon would be among the pool of TRICARE beneficiaries targeted by the higher fees. That bothered many lawmakers, he said.
And now a side note to the loyal readers of this blog. This entry is pretty lame, and don't I know it. So now I stand before you, ripping the mea culpa from my chest like Claude Rains in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. "This blog entry is a fraud; it's a crime against the readers who come to me, and I committed it." OK, so I hit a creative low. But rest assured, I have the best pharmacists I can find working on the problem.
Only a fool would hope to find the thrills of the jungle in copy editing. Our jobs are stressful, but we never have to fend off lions and only metaphorically shoot poison darts. Sure, we may come to blows about where to put hyphens and commas, but in the main our workdays are not likely to culminate in bloodsport.
But still we encounter a lethal risk: sheer boredom. About 90 percent of what we handle each day is interesting and challenging, but that remaining 10 percent is usually the blandest filler you could possibly imagine: such things as lists of meetings and classes or PR blurbs about local businesses.
Our biggest nemesis on this score is the Military Update column we run in Saturday's paper. The column relentlessly explores the world of TRICARE, which has something to do with military retirees health benefits. I really don't know, because I tune out usually by the third graf. But there is a way to beat this. I just substitute the word "sex" - or better yet, sex! (the juvenile bold italics is great) - for TRICARE in copy.
It works well:
The cloud in an otherwise sunny bill for TRICARE (remember, think sex!) beneficiaries hovers over the retail pharmacy program.
In December, Congress ordered three tiers of premiums for the TRICARE Reserve Select benefits, which are similar to TRICARE Standard fee-for-service coverage.
Because more than $700 million in TRICARE savings were "embedded" in the administration's 2007 defense budget request, the decision to block the increases meant trimming other programs.
An attempt to block the TRICARE fee increases, and the surprise boost in the 2007 pay raise were highlights of subcommittee actions on personnel provisions of the fiscal year 2007 National Defense Authorization Act (HR 5122).
Whether the Senate will approve any part of the administration's TRICARE fee adjustments is still a little uncertain.
What doomed that plan in the House were both the timing and the details, McHugh told Military Update - timing in the sense that the nation is fighting a war and that some of those warriors who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan soon would be among the pool of TRICARE beneficiaries targeted by the higher fees. That bothered many lawmakers, he said.
And now a side note to the loyal readers of this blog. This entry is pretty lame, and don't I know it. So now I stand before you, ripping the mea culpa from my chest like Claude Rains in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. "This blog entry is a fraud; it's a crime against the readers who come to me, and I committed it." OK, so I hit a creative low. But rest assured, I have the best pharmacists I can find working on the problem.
posted by John Parnell at 8:49 AM
1 Comments:
I laughed, I cried, and totally agreed with the lameness of the post ;) Better luck next time, try to keep the "TRICARE" off your mind.
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