Melinda Berman was born February 7 (year unknown). She is known as the Masked Editor, who rode under cover of night through the city, correcting spelling and punctuation on signs and posters. She was eventually unmasked by an angry goat salesman and dragged into court, where she was found guilty of petty vandalism and fined one dollar. When various shopkeepers protested that the damage to their signs ran into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, the judge stated that, while people who cannot use apostrophes correctly are entitled to equal protection under the law, they would nevertheless shut the hell up in his court until they learned the difference between a plural and a possessive or they would be charged with contempt of court.
She passed away May 26, 1989. Her obituary was proofread thirty-six times and shone as a testament to correct use of semicolons. A national day of mourning was declared for one of the great heroes of editing and thesauruses were shelved at half-mast for a week.