While working as a young reporter with the Seattle Times, E. B. White submitted a short story one day about a man who sees his wife's body in the city morgue. The editor's response prompted him to leave the paper in search of people with a better understanding of human nature.

The problem? White's editor wanted him to change the man's anguished cry from "My God! It's her!" to "My God! It is she!"

[White soon become a mess boy on a ship bound for Alaska commanded by an old whaling captain and "manned by a crew who knew that a man says 'It's her!' when he finds her dead."]