In the Loop: April 2023
Everything, Everywhere (But Not All at Once)
Spring has sprung (at least for now) and there is a palpable shift in energy that is improving the atmosphere. We are so pumped to be reading a wide array of projects—articles about witch hunts! memoirs! grant applications about super cool projects! and more!—and we are thrilled to be involved in your work. Keep it coming!
April brings with it a whole clump of sublimely specific holidays in many shapes and sizes: tweed, ham, stationery, dolphins, dance, poetry, grilled cheese sandwiches, libraries, bell bottoms, burritos, dandelions, ferrets, geologists, greeting cards, fun, tea, Shakespeare, denim, astronomy, chocolate mousse, superheroes, lunch. We hope you embrace the many celebrations of April and the feistiness of spring.
And Happy Hamster Day to you!
Editing Q & A: Poetry Is Weird
In honor of National Poetry Month (April), let's talk about formatting poems and poetry extracts.
A poetry quotation that spans more than one stanza should be presented as an extract whenever possible. Here's an example using "Application for a Driving License" by Michael Ondaatje:
Two birds loved
in a flurry of red feathers
like a burst cottonball,
continuing while I drove over them.
I am a good driver, nothing shocks me.
If it the quotation must be run in to the text, use a slash (with a space before and after) to indicate line breaks in the poem. Use two slashes to indicate separate stanzas.
“Two birds loved / in a flurry of red feathers / like a burst cottonball, / continuing while I drove over them. // I am a good driver, nothing shocks me.”
Wake Up and Smell the Playlist
What's the Diff?
There are a lot of sneaky words out there—words with similar spellings, similar sounds, or just similar vibes. Here’s the lowdown on some of those commonly swapped-by-accident words.
Disinterested (adj.): Disinterested means impartial or lacking bias. You would want a panel of disinterested judges to oversee a contest for National Blueberry Pie Day (April 28).
Uninterested (adj.): Uninterested means bored or lacking interest. Some people—but not all people—might be uninterested in attending events to celebrate National Lima Bean Respect Day (April 20).
Cool Guide: Talk Like Shakespeare Day (April 23)
Stuff We Like
April 1–7 is Be Kind to Spiders Week: An entomologist explains why you probably shouldn’t kill spiders in your house (even if they give you the whim-whams).
April 1 is April Fool’s Day: The Met Gala (aka the fashion event of the year) announced this year’s “Plunder and Looting” theme. What will your favorite A-list celeb be wearing?
April 3 is National Tweed Day: Keep a close eye on your pants and an even closer eye on people who admire your pants.
April 7 is National Beer Day: The Chicago White Sox announced a heck of a lot of new craft beers and some very surprising new food options available on game days.
April 8–16 is National Robotics Week: Check out 100 years of awesome robots in pop culture.
April 11 is National Barbershop Quartet Day: Give ‘em the old razzle dazzle with this number about vasectomies.
April 13 is National Make Lunch Count Day: Smarties about food share what they eat for lunch (Hint: it’s not just random stuff from the vending machine).
April 14–23 is National Dance Week: Check out the evolution of dance from the 1950s to the 2010s.
April 17 is National Bookmobile Day: Books have been hitting the road since 1860, bringing books to the people. Check out the House of SpeakEasy to read about their Bookmobile and their new Artmobile!
April 20 is National Look Alike Day: A woman in NYC tried to poison her lookalike with cheesecake.
April 25 is National Telephone Day: Phones have been thought to screw with our social skills long before texting.
April 26 is National Richter Scale Day: Enjoy this SNL sketch about an earthquake that strikes an SSA Name Change Office.
April 29 is National Zipper Day: The global zipper market is predicted to reach $19.8 billion by next year. Do you secretly wish you went into the zipper business?
April 30 is National Bugs Bunny Day: Here is a ranking of the ten most iconic Bugs Bunny cartoons. (Spoiler alert: The top three include the Wascally Wabbit performing opera.)
April is National Poetry Month: Amanda Gorman—aka America’s most famous poet—is going to change the world.
