Jargon sometimes separates journalists from readers

"Don't bury the lede!" snapped the listening character.

"That," I said to my husband, "was written by a journalist."

"Burying the lede" or "burying the lead" is the term the editor growls when the reporter has waited too long to get the main topic of the story out there. I'm horrendously guilty of this because I like to build up suspense, kind of creating the background for the punch line. In feature stories, which I write more than hard news, it's barely acceptable, but in hard news, it's a crime punishable by having to clean out the office coffee pot.

Every industry has its own special lingo. For instance, we use the term "lede" instead of "lead" so the typesetter (back in the days when they actually set type instead of typing it into a computer) didn't confuse "Lead" as in "Lead me by still waters and the donut table" with "lead" as in "I didn't get his quote because the lead in my pencil broke."

Journalism lingo has some really great bits of wordplay, too. What would you expect with a room full of writers? My sons think it's cool because I get to cuss in my job because I can say "bastard column" and not get in trouble. (No, the column's parents were married, but the offspring doesn't fit any standard width.) Then there are the widows and orphans I have to deal with, all related to single words or sentences left at the bottom of a column or page when a story jumps to a new column or page.

But, as with any other industry, news of our secret language has slipped out and other people are using it. And, as often happens, some folks haven't quite got the lingo down. They'll say one thing and mean another, sometimes even if they know the difference. I'm terrible about saying prescription instead of subscription, and I know good and well the prescription comes with a doctor's bill and side affects that may include nausea, drowsiness and a sudden addiction to Jerry Springer. Subscriptions come from Reader's Digest Clearinghouse, but they never seem to come with that giant check for $1 million ...

Almost every day, we have folks calling the T-G wanting to put an "ad" in for a public service announcement, or complimenting (or complaining about) my articles, when they mean my columns. So, at the risk of being evicted from the Secrets Keepers Club, here's a few definitions.

Ads: These, you pay for. They include everything from full-page furniture clearance advertisements to yard sales in the classifieds. You can write them yourself or work with our advertising team.

Calendar items: These, you don't pay for, as long as you aren't making any profit off of them. In other words, nonprofit groups such as churches, ball teams, school groups and charity benefits can have their news put in the community calendar for no charge. Since we can't guarantee there will always be space for them, it's not a bad idea to take a paid ad out as well.

Announcements: Wedding, engagement and anniversary announcements. Currently, there is no charge to get these in the T-G, but I don't expect that to last in these rising-cost days. When I worked at the newspaper in Andalusia, Ala., we started charging for any wedding that took more than a half-page. This started after one write up actually took an entire page and a half -- before the photos. If the father of the bride hadn't been the Alabama Speaker of the House, they would have never gotten away with it. We have forms at the paper for the write-ups -- the closer you stick to the form, the more likely you will get the announcement you want printed in the paper. Birth announcements are included in this, called "Hello World," in our paper, and they are free. The Half-Pint section, however, has to be paid for. We have both paid obituaries, which are short and stick to the basics, and paid obituaries, in which families can include much more information.

Articles: These are stories. These, you don't pay for and a real live reporter (or a close facsimile thereof) writes 'em up. The reporter stands back and writes about the facts in the third person, keeping himself out of the story. These can be broken down into different kinds of stories, too, such as hard news and features, In features, the reporter can let a little personality sneak into the writing, but in hard news, it's a Jack Webb Dragnet kind of thing -- "Just the facts, Ma'am."

Columns: This is a column. I get to use first person, my own voice, and I can get away with things like "gonna" "folks" and writing "'em" instead of "them" -- if that fits my personal voice. A William Safire column would have been much more formal, and an Art Buchwald column would have been much funnier. I'm striving for something along the Molly Ivins, Erma Bombeck and Emily Post for Real People kind of thing. I call it "therapy."

The tendency for industry catch phrases to go named and wander into everyday language happens all the time, and you probably don't even realize where the phrase originated. "Pushing the envelope," "Knowing the ropes," and "By hook or by crook" are some of those. Sometimes, the origin gets so forgotten, the phrase gets misused. I cringe every time I read where someone gave someone else "free reign." It's "free rein," as in loosening up on the reins of a horse and letting it run as fast as it can wherever it wants. That's what it means when you give someone free rein.

That's another reason I like writing my columns more than anything else. Free rein.

-- Mary Reeves is a Times-Gazette staff writer. She can be reached at mreeves@t-g.com.