fun with AP style

Since we found out one of our clients uses Associated Press style (which is rifuckulous), I thought I'd make some light fun of it with something I used to do many moons ago at newspaper copy desks. That's right, it's time to play "What Rifuckulous Thing is in the AP Stylebook." This is played by noting entries in the stylebook, poking fun at them, and poking fun at what was removed from the latest version of the stylebook¹. OK, now, read.

In: menage a trois²
Out: blog
Note: Yeah, because no one is into blogs right now. But menage a trois: now that's something that you hear in the news every five seconds, right?

In: retarded
Note: Because no one working at a newspaper knew that using retard was just in bad taste. That's why retard is in headlines all the time. Thanks for clearing that up, AP. What would we do without you?

In: mecca
Note: lecca high make a heiny ho. Also, seriously, this is used often enough in newspapers to garner an entry? And let us not forget that it's not lowercased when refering to the city in Saudi Arabia. That is, of course, unless it's a metaphysical city ... whooooooooooooooo.

More later.

¹This applies to the 2006 edition of the AP stylebook, natch.
²Or, rather, this is still in. Seriously. I think I've been making fun of this entry since I was in high school. I think it was added in because of that episode of Seinfeld. That's really the only explanation.