1. A Man Named Ed
The EPPC Years

2. On March 22, 2004, M. Edward Whelan III
started working at the Ethics and Public
Policy Center, and so began the Whelan Era at
EPPC. Some say that punctuating sentences
at EPPC will never be the same, others have
come to appreciate the challenge.
What follows is a compilation of helpful
“dos” and “don’ts” from past office managers
and others. Their stories are true. Their
names have been changed to protect the
innocent.

3. The Word of Ed

4. “Don’t ever use ‘The Center.’ It’s
EPPC.”

5. “Tell me what we need to do in 12 words or less
and no more.”

6. “Subject: FW: Betty Fletcher dead
‘Please review my This Day database to
see when I next take a whack at Ninth
Circuit Judge Betty Fletcher.’”

7. “Please do not ever use ‘passed’ as a
euphemism for ‘died.’ I can tolerate
‘passed away,’ but the only thing that
passes is a kidney stone.”

8. Miscellaneous Pet-Peeves and Dictums:
(For starters, the plural of dictum is dicta.)

9. Ed said: No superscripts on
numbers and dates.
Seriously? It autocorrects. We can’t
control it!

10. Ed said: Use either M dashes without
spaces, or space-space.
M dashes without spaces, or
space-space. What does that even
mean?

11. Ed said: Use hyphens for
compound nouns, like wine-and-
cheese reception.
Ugh.

12. Ed said: I don’t like the use of the phrase
“No problem.”
“Okay. No worries!”
--Intern from June 10, 2004-June 11, 2004

13. Happy Hour Confessions
of EPPC Office Managers

14. “He also likes curly apostrophes,
not straight ones.”
“He hates those non curly quotation
marks and apostrophes so much.”

15. “Latecomers to staff meetings bug
him too, don’t they?”
Yep. You know who you are.

16. “Fear the ampersand. Never, ever
use it.”

17. “And I think he even had something
on NRO about where periods should
fall when there are parentheses
involved. (). or (.)?”
The horror!

18. “If he uses more punctuation than
necessary, you know you’re in trouble.
‘Subject: Christmas VM???’”
In case of excessive punctuation: RUN!

19. “How’s it been working with Ed these last
nine years and ten months?”
“To quote Ed, ‘fine.’”
--Anonymous.

20. Here’s hoping The Word of Ed continues
for many more years.