A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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“A pint of tequila? That’s a long shot” (3/28)
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Entry from October 21, 2012
“Proofread carefully to see if you any words out”

“Proofread carefully to see if you any words out” (minus the word “left”) is a jocular editing one-liner that has been printed in many newspapers and books. “Check to see if you any words out” was printed in the journal College English in 1961. New York (NY) Times “On Language” columnist William Safire (1929-2009) wrote in a 1979 column, “Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.”
 
“Proofread Carefully to See If You Any Words Out” was printed on
T-shirts in 1998.
 
   
9 November 1961, Anderson (IN) Herald, “Athlete Winner Of Scholarship Explains Grammar” (UPI), pg. 19, col. 2:
Check to see if you any words out.
(A humorous letter in the journal College English—ed.)
 
12 October 1964, The Independent Record (Helena, MT), “Why Don’t You Right It Wright?”, pg. 4, col. 2:
Check to see if you any words out.
 
Google News Archive
26 November 1966, Sumter (SC) Daily Item, “Rules of Grammar?”, pg. 8, cols. 6-7:
The weekly bulletin of the Rotary Club of Houston, The Log, affords this amusing list of ungrammatical rules for those of us who have trouble composing our sentences.
(...)
7. Check to see if you any words out or made any misteaks in spelling.
(Houston, Tex. Chronicle.)
 
9 July 1967, Boston (MA) Globe, “It Don’t Always Pay To Follow Example,” pg. 2:
Proofread your writing to see If you any words out. 
 
Google News Archive
4 September 1967, The News and Courier (Charleston, SC), pg. 10A, col. 2:
“So here are ‘13 comedy commandments’ on writing, written originally, I think, by the Minnesota Newspaper Association:
(...)
“Proofread your writing to see if you any words out.”
 
Google Books
Creative News Editing
By Alfred A. Crowell
Dubuque, IA: W.C. Brown
1975
Pg. 67:
Proofread your writing to see if you any words out.
 
Google News Archive
9 November 1979, Miami (FL) News, “On Language: You should never use no double negatives” by William Safire, pg. 15A, col. 1:
Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.
 
Google Books
How to Write & Publish a Scientific Paper
By Robert A. Day
Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press
1994
Pg. 94:
Proofread carefully to see if you any words out. —ANONYMOUS
 
6 August 1998, Washington (DC) Post, “Still More: The Best T-Shirts of 1998” by Bob Levey, pg. C16:
“Proofread Carefully to See If You Any Words Out” —a “Levey fan from Manassas.”

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New York CityMedia/Newspapers/Magazines/Internet • Sunday, October 21, 2012 • Permalink


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