Have you hugged an editor today?

I read this and proceeded to fall off my chair laughing. This is made even funnier when I think of everything I have edited or will edit in the future. However, it does give a good idea of how much a good editor can contribute. And how much damage a bad or disgruntled editor can do. My advice? Be nice to editors. We are a sensitive lot.

…at least the [Encyclopaedia] Britannica reading has given me some new
perspective on my job. It’s given me awareness of the power of editing. I’m
thinking, for instance, of the Ems telegram in 1870. Prussian chancellor Otto
von Bismarck edited the report of a diplomatic meeting to purposely offend the
French and start the Franco-Prussian War. I’m not saying that as an editor, I
want to start a war, but it’s nice to know I could.
~A. J. Jacobs, The Know-it-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World