Style guide 2

Joan Sutton Straus, a Day Oner and former Toronto Sun Lifestyle editor/columnist, tells TSF the new style guide reminds her of Ed Monteith, the late managing editor.

"The style guide reminds me of my feud with Eddie Monteith," she writes. "He would not allow the word 'crotch' in my column . . . nor could I use the word 'penis' as in penis envy in a story I did about the cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead - in a paper that frequently referred to breasts as boobs!

"I sent Eddie a very large prickly cactus, which he kept in his office for a very long time."

Speaking of the new style guide, a memo to the Toronto Sun display ad department:

Sun Media's new Word Usage and Style Guide reads: "Dates: Use figures without letters; April 1, not April 1st; May 3, not May 3rd. When a month is used with a specific date, use the abbreviation (Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec.)"

So it is Monday, Sept. 8, not Monday, September 8th as used in numerous ads promoting the launching of the new torontosun.com web site, or are there separate style guidelines for ad writers?

Just searching for consistency . . .

And speaking of the launch of the new web site, Steve Tilley has us pumped after reading his Sunday Sun preview.

TSF welcomes comments about the new look.