I’ve done a post a bit like this before, but as an editor I like to stop every now and then, take stock and be grateful for all the new things I’ve learned recently as a result of online searches. This time everything is fairly innocuous and unlikely to bring an ominous knock at the door! These 11 searches were all undertaken as part of my work on two books; one fiction, one non-fiction.
- Ladyboys — one word or two? (It’s one.)
- Did Samuel Romilly oppose the slave trade? (He did indeed!)
- Did Jaguar make a Roadster model of their E-Type in 1974? (Yes.)
- Is it Wi-Fi, wi-fi, wifi or WiFi? (Wi-Fi — which is actually a trademark. Although in a work of fiction no one will probably care as long as you’re consistent.)
- Does Colman’s mustard take an apostrophe? (Yes.)
- Raccoon — one ‘c’ or two? (Usually two, but one can be acceptable in some contexts.)
- Does Zeinabu irene Davis really use a lower case ‘i’ for ‘irene’? (Yes.)
- Is ‘chile limón’ a legit potato chip flavour over in the good old US of A? (It sure is!)
- What are the lyrics of ‘The H1N1 Rap’ by Dr Clarke? (Enjoy …)
- How did Yul Brynner die? (Lung cancer.)
- Where were Harper & Row located back in 1964? (New York.)
Please rest assured that I do look at more than one source when fact-checking, but I’m not going to bore you with all of them!
That, dear reader, is why my head is full of bits of information that probably wouldn’t even be useful in a pub quiz, but I forget to take my vitamin D and put the bins out. Prize if you can guess which searches were for the fiction book and which for the non-fiction.
Writers, what have you been researching recently? And fellow editors, what strange facts have you learned in the course of your work?
