So, I realize that all writers have to deal with the fact that editors are likely to change what they wrote. And humor writers, perhaps more than most, must worry that someone between the original pen and the printed page will have a different sense of humor and remove a joke (or worse yet, remove the part that makes it funny but leave the structure). But the worst subset in this bullseye-like venn diagram is the humor writer who relies on puns. Puns get killed.

    This week, I had a column satirizing some local disputes over potential wind turbines. I had them being constructed on people's faces, and two-thirds of the way through the article, there was a snot/it's not pun followed by a mucus/make us pun and a nose/knows pun. The mucus/makeus pun was removed entirely, but the editor (a reasonable man) had explained to me beforehand that it was too much of a stretch, and I respect his decision.

    The nose, however, was changed to knows. I can only assume that some eagle-eyed copy-editor had seen it and said, "This poor writer is confused by homonyms! I will save the day and change nose to knows, so the world need not suffer his ignorance!" Is this a major thing? Nost really, no.* And I do cheerily accept it as part of being a writer, and also as an incredibly minor thing in comparison to both the good of having a column, and the bad of other actual problems I currently have.

    But I still mourn for my dearly departed puns.