• a person distinguished by exceptional courage and nobility and strength;

• a being of great strength and courage celebrated for bold exploits; often the offspring of a mortal and a god (classical mythology)

• The reader representative at the Hartford Courant says copy editors are just as important as reporters.

• The Columbia Daily Tribune in Missouri promises to use more alternative story forms in its revamped Sunday features section.

• The New York Times looks back at Ed Anger, the Colbert-like columnist for the fading Weekly World News.
  

• The News & Observer tells us how developers pick names for condominiums — should it be the West on North or the West at North?

• Doublecheck party affiliations in every story they edit.
• Ensure that party affiliations are included in stories about politicians accused of some sort of malfeasance.
• If one politician in a story is identified by party, make sure they all are. Be evenhanded.

• Ted Vaden, public editor at The News & Observer, says enough already about John Edwards' haircut. That seems like a reasonable conclusion, given that this story ran on the N&O Sunday front page nearly three months after the "story" broke. That news peg was getting wobbly.

• A college newspaper adviser gets her job back in a legal battle. Bad editing was among the reasons listed for her dismissal; she alleged retaliation for the paper's news stories and editorials critical of the administration.

• A writer at Salon rises in defense of editors — now more than ever. (Registration may be required, but this one is worth the hassle.)
  

• The managing editor of the paper in Lafayette, Ind., discusses the expanding duties of the copy desk. "Today's copy editors are not only responsible for the editing and headline writing but are also charged with production duties," she says. "They create and design the pages; import the stories, photos and graphics onto their computer page; and often have to troubleshoot computer problems on deadline."

• Joseph Schwartz, a student and former editor-in-chief of The Daily Tar Heel, writes about why he wants to go into newspapers. Schwartz has a summer internship at the St. Petersburg Times. I like this line from his column:

The portability, permanence and presentation that newsprint offers can and will have value. Media companies that don't realize this and insist that newspapers are dying will be the first ones to keel over. Others will adapt.

• Jock Lauterer, who teaches community journalism, tells us what it's like to work with smaller newspapers across the state. His most recent visit was to The Kenly News in Kenly, N.C.
  

• We need a professional who is not afraid of alternative story forms or writing for the Web.

• The candidate takes responsibility for the whole package, including collaborating with other departments to ensure the best presentation, including online, print, alternative story forms, sidebars, photos graphics and other elements.

I like the idea that bloggers — and editors — don't know for sure whether I might be packing heat. I think I'll keep it that way.

• The liberal Talking Points Memo has undergone a significant redesign that makes the site a hybrid of blog and news source along the lines of The Huffington Post.

• The Chicago Sun-Times indicates that its editorial board will become more liberal.

• Liberal film maker Michael Moore and CNN reporter Sanjay Gupta battle over the "Sicko" facts.

• Clark Hoyt of The New York Times, on the paper's loose use of the "al-Qaeda" label.

• Kathy English of The Toronto Star, on alternative story forms.

• Manning Pynn of the Orlando Sentinel, on how newspaper readers are sometimes flat-out wrong in their accusations of bias and double standards.
  

Tenure, which requires professors to have the highest degree in their field, is a permanent job appointment designed to protect academic freedom.

• NPR offers some historical context on Jack Kerouac and the mythology surrounding "On the Road." Contrary to popular belief, the book manuscript underwent significant revision and editing. That doesn't detract from the importance of Kerouac's scroll (now on tour) on which he banged out a draft of the book.

• TMZ chides Britney Spears for an editing error on her Web site. The fallen pop star (or one of her minions, more likely) confused "roll" and "role" in discussing a possible part in a movie. (She didn't get it.) TMZ thankfully avoids the "oops, she did it again" angle on the headline. "That's how she rolls" could have worked, though.

• A copy editor turned food editor for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer says goodbye to the newspaper business.

• Richard Hart, a former assigning editor at The News & Observer, has stepped down as editor of The Independent Weekly, an alternative paper based in Durham, N.C.

Claws were bared and tongues were wagging last week as a "catfight" took center stage in the presidential race.

The confrontation began Tuesday when Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Democratic candidate John Edwards, confronted conservative provocateur Ann Coulter on the MSNBC program "Hardball." Portraying herself as incensed over Coulter's personal attacks against her husband, Edwards demanded that the blond bomb-thrower stop "debas[ing] the political dialogue."