What act / That roars so loud, and thunders in the index?

December 20, 2007 3:11 PM

This one's for all the editors out there! Remember when index cards were actually used to create... indexes?
posted by scody (21 comments total)

I'd prefer not to.
posted by shmegegge at 3:35 PM on December 20, 2007

Thanks, that was a good read. (I wouldn't have been able to put up with a genial-asshole boss like that, though. "Oh, did I say you'd be working on Wordsworth? Sorry, here's some shit to shovel." "Vaffanculo, I'm outta here, you supercilious prick!")
posted by languagehat at 3:38 PM on December 20, 2007

That was a fun essay! (web, best of, 67614)
posted by brain_drain at 3:39 PM on December 20, 2007

My memories of index cards are like paper cuts in my heart. And how could you not love anybody who looks kinda like Jack Gilford. Because Cracker Jack is the Index Cards of snacks.
posted by wendell at 3:48 PM on December 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

Dang, scody, that was a really interesting piece. Did wonders for my vocabulary, too!

(chazzerai, soigne, Vutsdepoint, bella figura, ne plus ultra, Moriarty, 'mandarin gamesmanship' and of course, Weltanschauung)
posted by Lynsey at 4:28 PM on December 20, 2007

check out the old guy's article. what brumptious fooforzero!
posted by mrgrimm at 4:28 PM on December 20, 2007

That was scrumptious.
posted by everichon at 4:43 PM on December 20, 2007

And, as discussed earlier, there is at least one other good use for index cards.
posted by twsf at 4:44 PM on December 20, 2007

Remember when index cards were actually used to create... indexes?

Don't you mean...indices?!?

/nerd burn
posted by middleclasstool at 5:30 PM on December 20, 2007 [3 favorites]

I have no memories of this, but I think I have jotted something about it into my hipster PDA.
posted by Astro Zombie at 5:51 PM on December 20, 2007

Don't you mean...indices?!?
/nerd burn

Not when indexes is given before indices in Webster's as the preferred plural.
/editor burn
posted by scody at 6:13 PM on December 20, 2007 [3 favorites]

Alphabetical coincidence!

/lexicographer burn
posted by middleclasstool at 7:11 PM on December 20, 2007

Not when indexes is given before indices in Webster's as the preferred plural.

I bet you're one of those plebeius that says "Jew-lee-us See-sarr" instead of "Oo-lee-us Kai-ser," too.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 7:18 PM on December 20, 2007

Hmmm, I'm glad M-W agrees that indexes is right for books and indices is right for variables, though I guess it's nothing more than divergent evolution in different fields and hardly worth respecting.
posted by Wood at 8:23 PM on December 20, 2007

Balance, too, was a concern: a half-column on the mistress and only four entries for the missus? Maybe not. (Prudence, exercising of, 243)

So they boiled the half-column on the mistress down to a single line?
posted by dhartung at 8:44 PM on December 20, 2007

A physical index? You mean, like a database, but involving no computers? Egad, that's just crazy enough to work!
posted by clevershark at 10:04 PM on December 20, 2007

(cute gimmicky device, overuse of, 125-26)
posted by chococat at 5:54 AM on December 21, 2007

So they boiled the half-column on the mistress down to a single line?

Oh, nicely done indeed.
posted by nebulawindphone at 7:06 AM on December 21, 2007

Alphabetical coincidence!
/lexicographer burn

Not when Webster's lists the preferred form first, regardless of alphabetical order.
/second-degree editor burn
posted by scody at 8:42 AM on December 21, 2007

*applies salve*

*gets out OED*

...

*applies more salve*

...well, um, VARIABLE ARRAYS. EAT THAT.

/programmer burn
posted by middleclasstool at 9:36 AM on December 21, 2007

The proper term is "Variable Length Array".

See ISO/IEC 9899:1999, Programming Language - C standard; Section 6.7.5.2 Array declarators.

/C99 burn
posted by ryanrs at 10:59 AM on December 21, 2007 [1 favorite]