“Should we hyphenate ‘pre-boner’?”

OK, this is hilarious. It’s the first page of the EIGHT PAGE style-sheet for George Saunders’ new book, Tenth of December (out Jan 8), and it could easily double as a style-sheet for Nicki Minaj’s liner notes. To wit: “Hyphenate compounds made up of nouns of equal value: ‘elf-baby’ (97)” and “Prefixes: hyphens OK with coinages (‘pre-boner’) and unfamiliar combinations (‘non-fancy’).”

A non-fancy elf-baby with a pre-boner? GROSS AND AMAZING.

Read Fiona Maazel’s review of Tenth of December here.

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— Elissa Goldstein is one-half of The Outlet’s editorial team. (The other half is here.)