This cloud has no silver lining.

Editing of the Bush book (see entry below) continues apace toward the deadline a week from today. Nothing further needs to be said about the horrific task of moving and renumbering the nearly 600 notes. This is one of those tasks that befalls all of us from time to time—the necessary-evil aspect of an otherwise tolerable project.

It is the rare occasion when we can figure a way out of or around these kinds of responsibilities.

I did just that when I lived in DC. I got sick and tired of spending hours in line, at the city-run inspection stations, waiting to get my cars and motorcycles inspected every year. So I paid a guy $40 each year to do it for me. (VA is a relative joy: car inspection at most gas stations.)

I wonder if Mr. Inspection does book notes. I'd hire him in a NY minute!

HTML = Hell Toucheth My Life

I have about a week and half to finish editing a book on Bush II's defense program. It's been a tough project.

The manuscript is about 425 pages, by ten writers in addition to the book's editor. Most problematic for me is that, as is too often the case, the manuscript did not conform to submission requirements. For example, all graphics embedded in text need to be moved to separate file, and all footnotes need to converted to endnotes with the accompanying renumbering.

I thought I'd take an editing break today to do some HTML coding. But . . .

Prepping the MS
HTML time
Mind numbing horrific task
The editor's bane