Mary Norris: The nit-picking glory of The New Yorker's Comma Queen

TED 2016
Mary Norris: The nit-picking glory of The New Yorker's Comma Queen (script)
Summary
The speaker works at The New Yorker as a copy editor.
The copy editors are never allowed any little errors. They don't choose what goes into the magazine. They work at the level of the sentence, the paragraph, the words, the punctuation marks and the hyphen. Their business is a mechanical process but they have to pay attention to details. The New Yorker's expressions are special unique, especially the dot, commas and hyphen. This is The New Yorker's style and you can know you're reading it.
The most important purpose for copy editors is to protect authors and to make articles look good. They have to use their good senses and find sentences which are emphasized too much or repeated without intention. They make its suggestions to the author through the editor, not directly.
The great editor saves the writers from their excesses: bad jokes or too long sentences. And then, when they make a mistake, somehow, all points of view focus on copy editors.
Among those, she has a reputation for sternness, and especially commas she suggests in the articles are the best. she is its queen. However, the critics never overlook tiny errors though she is proud of The New Yorker and them. It is expressed by the title: "The nit-picking glory of The New Yorker's Comma Queen" with her great joke.
Words in this story
judicial /legal
Legitimacy /lɪˈdʒɪt ə mə si/  lawfulness, legality, rightfulness. Legitimacy is defined as the lawfulness or authenticity of something, or refers to the status of a child being born to married parents. When you question whether something is lawful or permitted, this is an example of questioning the legitimacy of the action.
linguine /lɪŋˈgwi ni/  type of pasta
excess, excesses /ɪkˈsɛs/  more, too much