Send
I don't think I've ever e-mailed David Shipley, co-author of the new e-mail style guide "Send." But amid an earlier communication paradigm, I probably nodded at him across a quad.
Shipley and I were college classmates. I didn't know him very well, and in fact after graduation I came to painfully regret that. For last XX years (I hesitate to reveal how many, since his photo suggests he has not aged a single year), Shipley has been a star magazine and newspaper editor, at the New Republic and now the New York Times. In college, I worked on the student newspaper, and come mid-junior year the management reluctantly elected me to its ranks, because there didn't appear to be anyone else in the class with the needed talent.
As subsequent events have shown, clearly there was. And now that this book shows him to be an etiquette expert as well as a fine editor, I'm filled with worry. Would he have improved our newspaper if someone -- perhaps me -- had not somehow snubbed him? I'm sad to say it's entirely possible that I was immature enough to have made such a snub back then, but I honestly have no memory of it.
I'm even sadder to say that when I first heard of "Send," I felt a bit jealous. I've been writing about new media for years; why couldn't *I* have been the one to publish such a well-received style guide? But the more I learn about it, the more that envy shifts to admiration: "Send" appears to be full of insight, counterintuitive common sense, useful prescriptions and joie de vivre.
So until he can complete the Send sequel covering blogging (and boy, isn't blogging etiquette a big subject...), I'd like to make the modern-day equivalent of a nod across the quad. Hey Dave. Nice goin'.
I'm always interested in feedback, via info at johnclaytonbooks dot com
Shipley and I were college classmates. I didn't know him very well, and in fact after graduation I came to painfully regret that. For last XX years (I hesitate to reveal how many, since his photo suggests he has not aged a single year), Shipley has been a star magazine and newspaper editor, at the New Republic and now the New York Times. In college, I worked on the student newspaper, and come mid-junior year the management reluctantly elected me to its ranks, because there didn't appear to be anyone else in the class with the needed talent.
As subsequent events have shown, clearly there was. And now that this book shows him to be an etiquette expert as well as a fine editor, I'm filled with worry. Would he have improved our newspaper if someone -- perhaps me -- had not somehow snubbed him? I'm sad to say it's entirely possible that I was immature enough to have made such a snub back then, but I honestly have no memory of it.
I'm even sadder to say that when I first heard of "Send," I felt a bit jealous. I've been writing about new media for years; why couldn't *I* have been the one to publish such a well-received style guide? But the more I learn about it, the more that envy shifts to admiration: "Send" appears to be full of insight, counterintuitive common sense, useful prescriptions and joie de vivre.
So until he can complete the Send sequel covering blogging (and boy, isn't blogging etiquette a big subject...), I'd like to make the modern-day equivalent of a nod across the quad. Hey Dave. Nice goin'.
I'm always interested in feedback, via info at johnclaytonbooks dot com
