And here's something about Michel Houellebecq: More possibility.
I was told a story yesterday by a newspaper editor in which Michel Houellebecq's name figured. For those not in the business, let me explain that the letters cq are editorial code indicating that something thus identified is correct. So you might, if you were quoting an English writer, follow the word colour with the letters cq in notes mode in order to indicate that the British spelling is correct. Apparently a copy editor at my friend's paper thought the cq at the end of M. Houellebecq's name was meant to be in notes mode. So he took them out and the French author's name appeared in print as Houellebe. Chalk this up to further adventures in copyediting.
In my former life as a typesetter, and for a few years after, my first reaction on setting a piece of text was to note the font it was set in. As a copy editor, Houellebecq's "cq" provokes a Pavlovian itch for the blue pencil.
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