We all stay busy at the Cook County News-Herald office. If we aren’t covering a meeting or event, we are writing about it. If we aren’t writing an article, we are reading background information. If we aren’t reading background information, we’re making follow-up phone calls.
And if we aren’t writing something, we’re working on laying out the paper—finding the right photo, double-checking a date or tweaking a headline. If we’re not contributing to layout, we’re proofreading to make sure that layout and editorial coexist in the boxes and columns that make up the newspaper.
If we’re not proofing, we’re taking a turn at keeping the paper going—getting a subscription change of address from a snowbird or running a credit card for an advertising bill; explaining how to submit an obituary or birth announcement or calendar of event item.
We don’t have much time to sit and visit or to surf the Internet. However, there is one little time wasting habit that we all share. We are all Google Doodle fanatics at the Cook County News-Herald.
Don’t get me wrong. We don’t log onto the Google search engine page every morning to see if there is a Google Doodle to ogle. But in the course of the day at least one person in the office has the need to do some research online. And of course we use Google to look for that information.
And invariably, if we find a Google Doodle posted in the upper left corner of the search engine website, we share.
“Did you see Google today?” we ask one another as we click to see if the Google Doodle “does” anything.
Sometimes the Google Doodle is simply a clever little picture of a historic figure or event interwoven with the Google logo letters. But other times Google offers a little slide show or game like the Jules Verne doodle that lets you float around an ocean deep filled with narwhales, eels and seahorses or the Dr. Who doodle that offers access to different layers of space and time.
It is of course a total waste of time. It’s a needless pause from proofing or from wrestling with writing. But sometimes a person in a busy office needs a break.
And this week we managed to tie our Google Doodle obsession into something that somewhat pertains to the newspaper, grammar.
Unlike most of the Google Doodle offerings which celebrate obscure occasions like the invention of the Rubik’s Cube or St. George’s Day or little known historical figures, such as artist Giovanni Battista Tiepolo or paleontologist Mary Anning, this week’s Google Doodles celebrate Christmas with a ‘Tis the Season series.
Each day this week the Google Doodle has featured a holiday scene such as a sleigh full of cheerful cartoon figures being pulled by a reindeer or a happy mustachioed skier.
As with all Google Doodles, clicking on the doodle launches a search about the subject. That leads to more time wasting as the search engine opens up with information on just who was St. Patrick or about the author of the classic children’s tale The Little Prince or some other vital information that we really don’t need to know.
However, this week, the Google Doodle’s theme of ‘Tis the Season opened up search results considering the appropriate contraction of “It is the Season.”
We were shocked to see that there are some who believe the correct contraction is T’is. Proofer extraordinaire Bill Neil and I agreed that is entirely incorrect. That led to a broader discussion of other contractions and errors that we see every day.
So checking out the Google Doodle this week wasn’t a total waste of time. ‘Tis always the season to talk about grammar!
Any sufficiently advanced
technology is indistinguishable
from magic.
Arthur C. Clarke
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