John Gordon Ross

The Internet‘s most prominent prescriptivist, John McIntyre, has been elbowed out of his position presiding the copy desk at the Baltimore Sun. I might be imagining things, but his last post at his blog You Don’t Say was actually put up by a colleague, which smacks to me of “you’ve got ten minutes to clear your desk out before the security guys escort you out of the building.”* His obliged departure is a blow to all right-thinking Net denizens with an interest in the English language, for his affability, intelligence, humour and tolerance of other viewpoints made that blog exemplary, and it is to be hoped that he will resume blogging as he promises to do sooner rather than later. At least, as soon as possible after he treats himself to a well-earned extended vacation somewhere more amenable than Baltimore.

*No, I was right (at least, if you believe the kind of unreliable news source John would mistrust). According to the blog dcrtv, those canned (it was a bloodbath, apparently) were told to “leave the building immediately.”