I’ve decided to reboot an old venture.

A couple of years ago, I started a site called Copyhacker with the intent of exposing awful web copy. (I posted it here as well, and I still have the badge in my sidebar.) It didn’t go far — perhaps because I emailed each target I found, and then decided that was a really annoying sales tactic.

The idea stuck with me, though, and today the Copyhacker is back. No silly sales tactics, just a place to post crappy copy and practice on it with my red pen. If you have a suggestion, email hackme at copyhacker dot com. Better yet, follow copyhacker on Twitter, and @reply with potential targets. Because who hasn’t seen garbage like this on a site somewhere?

Once again, many thanks to Bryan for the terrific styling and WordPress hackery.

(from Daily 5)

How a character handles a given object can be immensely revealing. Briefly describe, as specifically as you can, how the following characters would handle a pencil:

• a harried middle aged librarian named Greta Hurleyburton

Wears one over each ear and is constantly sharpening them with old-school crank sharpener mounted on her desk

• an elderly lawyer named Gregory Wooster IV

Imports handcrafted koa wood pencils from Argentina and keeps them in a humidor on his desk. Uses special Amazon rubber eraser and sharpens with a pocketknife (he likes to whittle also)

• a ten year old boy named Bruce

gets the big fat sparkly ones in 20-packs for pencil fighting, and trades them for candy

• a purple-haired installation artist who signs her work “Ahn R Keyy”

Sticks pencils in the eyes and private parts of mannequins as a theme. Makes pencil pincushions out of dolls of certain political figures.