brief note on abbreviations

I'm reading a lot more for work these days, even in off hours.

Come to think of it, doesn't that make them on hours?

For example, we're going to issue a new edition of an older series of books with few changes other than illustrations. I'm reading to get good specs and to check for easily correctable mistakes.

While reviewing proofreaders' marks on some galleysa few minutes ago, I left myself a note "STET cf BLK cc." Yikes! Do I actually think like that?

Well, this is how I actually think: I decided I had to look up cf, just to make sure I wasn't leaving myself a note I'd be [more] embarrassed to read later.

That's when I found The Guide to Punctuation, by Larry Trask, at Sussex University in the UK. Specifically, I read with some geeky pleasure his page on abbreviations. While over a decade old, and written primarily for British, not American, writers, it's still crisp, useful, and utterly dismissive of diversions from accepted practice.

Geeky writer types will love this stuff.

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On another note, I'm really (!) enjoying my new old CD. It's music I listened to on vinyl back in college, and I had no idea it existed on CD. It's Sheshwe: the Sound of the Mines, from Rounder Records. It's all in South Sotho, of which I understand maybe half a dozen words, and I just love it. Accordions, electric bass, drums, bells, and lyrics I don't understand, and it totally moves me. I'm a South African music geek.