Now and again some regular letter writers to the Pilot gripe about how we edit their contributions. I try to explain to them it’s nothing personal. We basically aim to correct grammatical mistakes and make sure it fits our style. For instance, you might prefer to write “twenty-five,” but our style is to use the number “25.” That’s standard style. Generally, you spell out numbers one to nine, but it’s the digits after that (there are, of course, exceptions but I won’t bore you with the details).

Often the most frustrating thing is editing copy down to fit the space we have available. Then you get into judgment territory — and some writers can get a little precious about their words. You may recall recently Assemblyman Chuck DeVore got a little hot when our copy editors chopped down one of his submissions to our “That’s Debatable” feature.

But, hey, I’m here to tell you that even city editors aren’t immune when a copy editor has to make something fit. Case in point, the briefs I wrote for our “Restaurant Roundup” feature last week I found to my disappointment was stripped of all my lame attempts at wit. Horrors! I understood why “the desk” (in newsroom parlance) trimmed the fat out. It was superfluous.

Here’s what I originally wrote:

It’s nearly Super Bowl Sunday, and you know you’ll want to watch the game, but you want just the right snacks. Fortunately for you there are as many choices as there are passes in Kurt Warner’s playbook.

Over at the Resort at Pelican Hill in Newport Beach you can watch Warner and his posse square off with Ben Roethlisberger and his crew on nearly life-size HDTVs at the lounge or poolside.

Bet you your average Pennsylvanian wishes he could say that. They’ll be serving up eight specialty burgers, Brandt Farm Beef, Norbest free-range turkey, American Kobe and chef’s specials Colorado high mountain lamb, ahi, Dungeness crab cake, as well as the surf and turf made with Brandt farm beef, half Maine lobster, sauteed spinach, and whole-grain mustard sauce, and the classic burger Rossini, which includes Kobe beef, sauteed foie gras and black truffle Madeira sauce.

Come to think of it, you order that in a Pittsburgh bar you’re likely to get a beer bottle over the head, but, hey, this is Southern California.

At Z’Tejas Southwestern Grill at South Coast Plaza they’ll be serving up two special-for-the-occasion margaritas and half-priced appetizers.

Five Crowns restaurant in Corona del Mar is hawking a variety of sandwich platters for those who want to watch the game at home. Make your orders 48 hours in advance by calling (949) 760-0555.

Watch and dine

So you love Indian food, and you’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about that “Slumgdog Millionaire” movie doing well during the awards season. Well, have they got a deal for you at Royal Khyber Fine Indian Cuisine, 1621 W. Sunflower Ave., in South Coast Plaza Village. Talk about a recession-buster. Take your date to Royal Khyber for a three-course meal and go see “Slumdog” for less than $30.

You can take advantage of this deal through Feb. 28, except for Valentine’s Day (hey, you’ve got to shell out a lot more cash than that for your sweetie on that day). To reserve the movie at the Regency Theatre and dinner at Royal Khyber, call (714) 436-1010. Dinner is served 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. during the week and until 10:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and you can catch the movie before or after the meal.

One wonders what it’s like to make a banana split with a copy editor. “Do you really need those sprinkles? Come to think of it, that whipped cream is full of calories. And I’m sure you can do without the chocolate syrup. Stick with the bananas, kid. They’re better for you.”

Oh, I kid the copy desk… They know I love ’em. For I was once on the copy desk for a year, so I well know the often thankless job they do.

You folks who also read the dead-tree version of the Pilot may have noticed a wrap-around ad we carried this week headlined: “Meet Our Newsroom.” The copy desk, after pointing out a couple of errors in it that we have since corrected, also noticed they weren’t included. They were good-humored about it, but I felt for them. They always go unnoticed in every newsroom I’ve ever worked in and I always like to plug them when I can. Without them checking our grammar and fixing our mistakes, which is a small part of their job, believe it or not, we’d really be in trouble. But imagine how poor the paper would be without them pointing out the giant holes we have in a story or without the terrific design and headlines? That stuff might look easy, but you try fitting “Rohrabacher” in a one-column headline! (We should go all New York Post and just call him “Dana” in those headlines. Whattya think?).

Anyway, I wanted you to also meet our copy editors here in the Costa Mesa office (Mike Swanson, one of the best headline writers I’ve ever worked with helps us from our sister-papers in Glendale but he’s not pictured above). Thank you for all the hard work you do Kelly Parker, Jamie Rowe and Kevin Ueda. We’d be doomed without you.

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