About a month ago, I sent a letter to Merriam-Webster because a reader mentioned that Kory Stamper might now be a Full Editor (whatever that is) and no longer an Associate Editor.<\/p>\n
A few months ago, I wrote a cheeky article about the fact that Kory Stamper had changed her hair color<\/a>. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but then, I had no idea there were so many people out on the Internet who seem to have some kind of crush on her. Now I know: she even has a fan club. And I am now in the position of having upwards of half of the visitors to my website looking for information about Ms. Stamper and (only slightly less) Emily Brewster.<\/p>\n One reader has asked if Stamper is no longer “Associate Editor” because on her last video she referred to herself as simply “Editor.” Can you clear this up?<\/p>\n Also, given that I will surely be writing about Stamper, Brewster, and Sokolowski in the future, I would like to know if I should be referring to any of your editors as “doctor.” Providing a brief bio on your site would be a good idea. As it is, almost everything I (and thus my readers) know comes from other websites: knitty<\/a> (Stamper) and cookthink<\/a> (Brewster). Sokoloswski is written about more than the other editors, but we never get any information about him other than that he is “Editor at Large.”<\/p>\n You could make two improvements to your website:<\/p>\n Any information you can provide would be most helpful. Regardless, I link only to M-W, and your website along with the Chicago Style Manual<\/a> and Fowler<\/a> are my primary sources for all matters grammatical. In other words, you are in good company.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It took them a week to respond, but Meghan Lieberwirth did so and at least resolved one question: both Stamper and Brewster are Associate Editors. I still don’t know what that means, however. And I don’t know if any of the Terrific Triad have PhDs. Oh well. Here’s her response (and my catty comments):<\/p>\n Thank you for writing. We are glad you enjoy our Ask the Editor video series and appreciate the links back to our site. [Yeah; I’m sure without Frankly Curious no one<\/i> would see those videos.]<\/p>\n To address your questions, Kory Stamper and Emily Brewster are both Associate Editors. Peter Sokolowski is our Editor at Large. [I know that! I want to know if he too wasted years of his life getting a PhD!]<\/p>\n Unfortunately at this time videos from Merriam-Webster.com cannot be embedded into other sites. I encourage you to visit our YouTube channel<\/a> if you are interested in sharing. [This channel currently has 15 videos out of a total of 27, so I don’t really know what you’re talking about here. Why didn’t you just say, “Yes! You can embed from out YouTube Channel!” I’ll embed Emily Brewster’s “Ending a Sentence with a Preposition” below, given that it seems to be very popular. I think people have been waiting years to be told that a preposition is a fine kind of word to end a sentence with.]<\/p>\n Regards, Meghan Lieberwirth\n
\nMeghan<\/p>\n
\nMerriam-Webster Inc.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nAnd As Promised<\/h3>\n