Twenty-some years ago, C/D's editor-in-chief, William Jeanes, recruited a new managing editor whose job it was to improve our writing. "He is, to some of you, an instrument of torture," William said of Steve Spence. "You should know, however, that he is my instrument of torture." In fact, our writing did improve, but one of the M.E.'s pet peeves was insider jargon that he felt scared off novice enthusiasts. The two of us argued endlessly over the acronym "DOHC," which he insisted be spelled out in its entirety, and we further tussled over "unibody," which he said had to be followed by the phrase "versus body-on-frame." If you dared utter shopworn euphemisms like "slushbox" or "mill," he'd make you read a chapter of The Elements of Style, and he once shouted at me, "I like short words and vulgar fractions," a line lifted from a Winston Churchill speech. I'd forgotten about all of this until I took up a new hobby: fly-fishing. I hired an Orvis guide—a former CIA officer—then subscribed to six fishing magazines. READ MORE ››
from Car and Driver Blog http://ift.tt/nSHy27
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