The 2003 version of the AP Stylebook is out. Among the changes: The anti- entry, which was new in 2002, changed back. Is it a mistake?

AP's stylebook editor, Norm Goldstein, says "no."

Bottom line: The 2003 entry on anti- is the one that counts. (We — OK, I — tried to simplify it in the 2002 edition, but some editors found it "more muddled.")

Not to complicate it further, but there'll be some "tweaking" in the 2004 version, too — listing anti-abortion as an exception to Webster's, and deleting anti-Semitic and anti-intellectual from the list, as Webster's has changed!

I think the 2002 change was definitely simplified; I'm not sure how people could argue that it was muddled. However, such words as antiauthoritarianism and even antiterrorism were an eyeful.

So for those of you who never bought a 2002 stylebook, guess you're in luck.