Hi, Rod 
 
First, I'm sad to hear about the fabulous guitar player.  
 
Second, you're missing the point on several counts. I go out of my way to point out that this isn't an attack on either Saskatchewan and its subsidy programs, or an attack on Safarik, who's a fine poet and an intelligent man who can't write prose--like my mentor, Robin Blaser. I'm pointing at a national problem, abetted by the structure of the CC's block grant program, which woefully underfunds the editing of books, (along with other things) which invites stressed or incompetent publishers. They're all stressed, but (as I found out the year I was on the block grant jury) more than a few are tired and/or incompetent. And as someone else pointed out yesterday, badly edited books aren't exactly a phenomenon reserved for small literary publishers. Karl Siegler of Talonbooks, Rolf Maurer of New Star and Marc Cote at Cormorant are as good editors as you'll find anywhere in the country, and those are just the ones I'm familiar with. 
But in general, there's considerable evidence that there's an exhaustion-based carelessness afoot, and it's a serious problem. 
 
Brian Fawcett