The Editor as Indian Tracker

Just a story this time.

I do a little editing for Empty Bowl Press, run by my friend Mike O'Connor at Port Townsend, Wash. Mike mentioned recently that the EB staff, as they reviewed my editing of their new book, Working the Woods, Working the Sea, kept remarking, "Who IS this guy?" That was a reference, Mike said, to the relentless pursuer(s) of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Somehow I'd missed that famous flick (one of many lacunae in my cultural knowledge), but I immediately got it from Netflix. The parallel was obvious between the pursuers and copyeditors, who also are faceless, implacable, and always on your trail.

I told Mike this, and he responded, "Yes, you are that Indian tracker."

I'm proud, and not too quietly I guess, since I'm telling about it here.