Carleton, Good comment, although there is no way to know whether the WaPo comments will actually get back to AP.
Normally the AP only wants to hear from subscribers, so it is not easy to contact them. Last year, they had a page with an open form for submitting suggestions for the 2011 Stylebook. They only considered submissions until Novemeber 15, 2010, but never said that (the 2011 submission page still exists). The 2012 page does not exist yet, but we may want to watch for it. I think the strongest argument for "km/h" vs "kph" is FMVSS 101 and automobile speedometers. The AP forces automotive writers to use an abbreviation (kph) that would actually be illegal on the speedometers of cars they write about. Perhaps if enough of us make some variant of that point when they open for suggestions, we can kill the dreaded kilopicohour. Hopefully, my letter is a thoughtful, considered attack, as I think we need to be firm. USMA has been flogging this issue for a decade per the archived listserver. ________________________________ From: Carleton MacDonald <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Sun, July 31, 2011 12:01:37 AM Subject: [USMA:50937] Re: AP Stylebook: now we have a name. I just signed into The Post’s web site and posted the comment. Carleton From:[email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Bill Hooper Sent: Saturday, July 30, 2011 11:59 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:50933] Re: AP Stylebook: now we have a name. On Jul 30 , at 6:20 AM, John M. Steele wrote: Note the other two names in the 4th paragrapgh. All three are listed as co-authors of the 2011 Stylebook. I sent my recent letter to all three of them. ________________________________ From: Carleton MacDonald <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Fri, July 29, 2011 11:00:09 PM Subject: [USMA:50930] AP Stylebook: now we have a name. From page C1 of The Washington Post, Friday, July 29, 2011. I added a comment. If anyone writes to him it would be good for the writing to be thoughtful and considered rather than an attack. Carleton Carleton, It sounds like you were able to contact people without registering with the newspaper. How did you do that? Particularly, how did you get email addresses for the other two people mentioned the fourth paragraph? Bill
