EXCUSE US

you don't remember, but we won't hold it against you. it's a struggle, and oftentimes the choice is the result of not wanting to lead with the first-person singular pronoun. i acknowledged my not so careful lapses in and out of the editorial we in this post, but didn't do much to make good on my promise to sort things out.

because i failed to buy the nyt magazine for the week of october 3rd, i didn't read ben zimmer's "on language" column on the historical debate over writing (or speaking) in the first-person plural until i saw it mentioned at 'mobylives' today in a post on nosism (the practice of using the editorial or royal we is named for the first-person plural in latin).

i guess, well, we always thought we'd be more than one, although i don't know if that's where we're still headed. past first-person plural users have been leveled all sorts of criticism, and zimmer gives us a funny rundown. my response to the standouts: i don't have a mouse in my purse, nor am i host to a parasite or would i get pregnant if i could. really, the we we use here isn't so much of the editor as the schizophrene.

we're sorry.