Human, left; greyhound, right

About 20 years ago, we were in the infield media center at Charlotte Motor Speedway. A greyhound rescue group brought a couple of dogs into the media center, and we listened to their talk and met the dogs.

My friend Jim McLaurin squatted down to pet and engage one of the dogs, and suddenly a bunch of photographers started snapping photos.

Jim, a long-time journalist, immediately thought of the photos in daily newspapers. Jim would be on one side, with the greyhound on the other.

"They'll probably write, 'Jim McLaurin, left,' " Jim said in wry humor. He was referring to the cutline (you'd call it a caption) under the photo.

People can tell a man from a dog, of course, but Jim was alluding to the fact that some copy editors like to make absolutely sure you know who's who.  I wouldn't be surprised if some copy editor somewhere has felt the need to identify a dog and a man that way.

I wish I had a copy of one of those photos.

EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com or nc3022@yahoo.com. TWITTER: EDITORatWORK.

 

More entries from TARJ

• Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr.

(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)

• Then Junior Said to Jeff...

(the book of great NASCAR stories)

• My best day as a sports writer

• Jeff Gordon's milk toast to Dale Earnhardt

• Wayne Auton: A life in racing

EDITOR@WORK blog entries 

• You really DO need an editor

• Reminders for would-be novelists

• What I charge (it's a deal) and what I edit

• What I do when I'm editing

• Slogging through the Internet

• J-school: More eyes on your stories

• J-school: Go out and learn•

Entries from The Dog Blog

• Katie cried

• Growl and pull

• 12 years with my dog Lady

• ... said the spider to ...

• The Dog Diary (2014)

• YIP! YIP! The stereo-sound huskies

• What Lady and Michael Jackson had in common

More blog entries by Tom Gillispie

• Resume for a writer and editor

• An editor's views on powerful writing

• Advice for be and would-be novelists

• Links to TG's stories online

• Favorite quotes

• What I do when I'm editing

Anecdotes by Tom Gillispie

• Wipeout at Death Valley

• Days with rainbows

• A desperate writer working in the dark

• Yer outta there!