Salutations!
Hello Slate Plus friends. I’m Abby McIntyre, and I’m a copy editor here at Slate.
Like many Slate staffers, I’ve been a reader and a fan for much longer than I’ve been an employee. I joined Slate’s copy desk in November 2013, but I had been a regular reader for about 10 years before that. (Yes, I started reading in high school—on my family’s boxy eMachines PC and superslow dial-up Internet.) Nowadays, my computer’s much sleeker, the Internet’s faster, and I get paid to read Slate content (and very occasionally create some of it).
Among the truly fantastic reads I got to check out these past few days before they went live: Will Saletan’s look at the economic explanation behind the tragic migrant crisis underway in Europe; TV critic Willa Paskin’s cheeky take on network television’s soapy, over-the-top fall dramas this year; best-selling novelist Katherine Dunn’s exploration of what made the 1969 boxing tale Fat City (rereleased by New York Review Books Classics this month) so great; Amanda Hess’ latest dive into the strange, dark recesses of the Internet that I’d otherwise know nothing about; and Mark Obbie’s fifth installment in his powerful series on crime victims, this time about the complex, intertwined relationship between gang members and victims in South Central Los Angeles.
And although I did not have the pleasure of copy editing it, I can’t forget to recommend Jordan Weissmann’s thoroughly researched and intriguing argument in favor of taxing Harvard and other elite universities. My personal feelings on the matter may depend on where my alma mater’s decent, but not Harvard-level, endowment falls in all this.
Another big part of my day is spent proofreading our fast and fascinating blog content. As a craft beer aficionado, I was interested to read this post, also by Jordan Weissmann, about Lagunitas’ sale of a major stake in its brewery to Heineken. Jordan managed to make me slightly less bummed out about the current state of microbrews and made me chuckle at a Nietzschean headline in the meantime.
I also copy edit our design blog, The Eye, which continued its tradition of making me want to buy really cool things that I cannot afford by featuring these exquisite hand-colored artisanal globes.
Elsewhere, our Bad Astronomer Phil Plait did what he does best in parsing the science behind these gorgeous galaxy photos. (I suggest you click that link if you need a new desktop background, or just enjoy pretty things in general.)
As you can see, working for Slate is already a dream come true, but maybe one day I will fulfill my true dream of reviving the great Nathan Heller’s Copy-Editing the Culture column. If only I had his wit and writing skills …
Please send ideas, inspiration, and talent my way!
All the best,
Abby
