When Dr. Ink thinks about copy editors who have saved his bacon, he thinks of Ed Merrick of the St. Pete Times. Ed had the quiet and steady manner often associated with copy editors, along with an intense curiosity and a wry sense of humor.
One day, Ed call up the Doc to check in on a feature story that the Good Doctor had written. It concerned the reunion of two brothers, both with terrible physical disabilities, including the inability to swallow. The boys, in their teens, had been adopted and nurtured by a saintly woman who had established a home for children with multiple handicaps.
I described their joyous reunion, how they lay side by side, watching cartoons, and sharing a little snack of Fruit Loops (they couldn’t swallow, but they could taste). Then came the call from Ed.
“Doc this is a terrific story. Everyone here on the desk is talking about it. We just wanted to alert you of one catch. I thought you might have misspelled the name of the cereal. Some of us thought it was Fruit Loops, and others Froot Loops. Since we can’t confirm it here [this was way before the Internet], we’ve sent a copy clerk down to the supermarket to get a box.”
Sure enough, Dr. Ink had misspelled the name. And the last thing Doc would have wanted was for a reader to notice the mistake, especially at a sweet spot in the story. What a great feeling to know that an editor cared enough to send a kid to the market to check the spelling. Talk about your check-out line!
Years later, Dr. Ink would give Ed Merrick a thumbs up and a cheer of “Froot Loops!”
Once, when Doc told this story to a group of copy editors, one raised his hand and said, “I wouldn’t have sent the kid to the market. I would have just changed it to ‘breakfast cereal.'”
That copy editor just didn’t get it. Ed Merrick did.
