Journalists' Gold

Fine. I'm giving in. As seemingly the only 20something in America without a blog to call my own, I'm feeling left out. So here goes, with a post that will only confirm the nerdiness of myself and others like me:

I work from noon until around 8 p.m. every Saturday. Most of the time, I'm alone in the newsroom for the first few hours. Yesterday, I happened to stop by the mailroom and noticed a package for the news editor (I'm the assistant city editor). From the labels on it, I could tell this box held the journalist's equivalent of gold. ...

Associated Press Stylebooks! And not just any old AP stylebooks, either. These were brand new 2006 versions, complete with all the options (spiral bound, leather interior, sunroof, etc.).

I decided to give Megan the honor of opening them, as her name was on the box. She arrived about three hours later and nearly squealed with delight that they had arrived. She then began distributing them to all of the copy editors (I'm technically one of them.) and taking the old dusty 2005 editions to those who were previously without a stylebook.

Now, I always love the smell of a new book, but this was special.

Thankfully, the AP provides a page with a listing of all the additions, deletions and changes since the previous edition. Oddly enough, "blog" has been deleted, while "20something" has been added. I didn't have time to check why on either count. I'll try to check and let you all know after I head back to the office on Tuesday.

Are those of us at The Advocate really that strange for celebrating? What's your favorite/least favorite AP style point? And why did it take until Sept. 30 to get this year's edition?