Stet » writing

Call me stupid

Ria — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 23:44:21 +0000

It’s heading for 1 am. About to shut down for the night, I carelessly copied over the whole folder of my current editing job in progress onto my USB stick, thinking that I’d be super efficient by having access to the files during the day tomorrow. Two seconds later I realized to my horror that I

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Bara the Wifebeater

Ria — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 14:02:42 +0000

It’s not the name he would choose, and no one dares use it to his face, but with his empire in our street reduced to his wife’s chop shop, Bara has little left to show for himself except his frustration and his fists. Yet at the peak of empire, the ruler of Rue 103 was a

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Crossing the floor

Ria — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 05:01:27 +0000

The following is loosely based on a recent local political drama. I’m not going to give any clues because those who recognize it, don’t need them, and those who don’t should be grateful they didn’t witness it.

“What do I look like?” he asked the TV. With no reply forthcoming, he groaned, “Lord God!”, his head sinking into

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Ria in print

Ria — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 22:36:55 +0000

Just in case you thought I was slacking off, I rewrote my “Don’t bow” post and got it published in today’s Jamaica Observer. If you want to see it, you’ll have to register for the E-paper version (free) because the normal online version does not publish the full paper. My bit is in the “Bookends” section.

Thanks

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Perry Henzell — Fire in the belly

Ria — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 04:06:04 +0000

I’ve just heard that Perry Henzell died this morning. I spoke to his wife, Sally, only a few days ago when we were staying at her hotel, Jake’s, in St Elizabeth. I asked her where Perry was and she pointed over her shoulder, “He’s up there in the house right on top of the hill.” He

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Cupertino Effect strikes again

Ria — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 05:20:23 +0000

Hard at work, racing against the clock, just past midnight, I found another funny example of the

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Writing wrongs

Ria — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 04:44:27 +0000

Taking a break from the political meltdown here in Jamaica, I got a tip-off from a fellow editor in Rome about a new term for spellcheck mis-corrections: The Cupertino Effect.

The origin of the term, coined at the Language Log, is from the the common mistyping of “cooperation” as “cooperatino”. Bizarrely, certain spellcheckers offer “Cupertino” as a

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Chinglish crassics

Ria — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 03:15:50 +0000

As an editor, it was all I could do to stop myself from leaping out and attacking this car in front of me with my red pen.

To calm myself down, I thought I’d do some breathing exercises when I got home. But I hadn’t counted on the instruction leaflet that came with the yoga mat:

Train the

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Mi fadda dead (Part II)

Ria — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 04:12:48 +0000

Mi fadda ‘im dead from diabetes. Is it what dem say but mi tink it ‘im gyal fren Gloria do ‘im someting wicked. Ya lawd! Why ‘im can die from diabetes when ‘im right as rain lars year heaster time. Ee stuff ‘isself sick wit dozen bun dem. White as a sheet was it! Haal a

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Me fadda dead (Part I)

Ria — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 03:06:47 +0000

Wednesday Me fadda dead dis harftanoon. Or maybe dis mornin’, ah doan really know. Me sista she call me nah on me cell, say im was sick dis mornin an im tek a taxi to Kingston public ospital but ‘is eyes dem roll back all white in the taxi an im cyaan talk no more. De doctor

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