topics: |  english | language | grammar | punctuation

Get violent about punctuation - where does one get
balaclavas?

[IDEA: people are angry about trees, about wages to
workers, about so many small things, who will get
seriously concerned about [chocolate? parle's candy?
Marie biscuits]
[NOTE: When do we get balaclava's?]
--

A woman, without her man, is nothing.
A woman: without her, man is nothing.

  [My experiment in class - women saw the latter interpretation]

--

Dear Jack,
   I want a man who knows what love is all about.  You
   are generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not
   like you admit to being useless and inferior.  You
   have ruined me for other men.  I yearn for you.  I
   have no feelings whatsoever when we're apart.  I can
   be forever happy -- will you let me be yours?
	   Jill

Dear Jack,
   I want a man who knows what love is.  All about you
   are generous, kind, thoughtful people who are not
   like you.  Admit to being useless and inferior.  You
   have ruined me.  for other men I yearn.  For you I
   have no feelings whatsoever.  When we're apart, I can
   be forever happy. Will you let me be?
       Yours,
	   Jill

--
	Every lady in this land
	Hath 20 nails on each hand;
	Five and twenty on hands and feet;
	And this is true, without deceit.

	Every lady in this land
	Hath 20 nails.  On each hand
	Five; and twenty on hands and feet.
	And this is true, without deceit.
 		   - p.9-10

History of punctuation / capitalization

200 years ago - capital letters for all nouns; full
stops even for common abbreviations. Occasionally
combine colons and dashes. Commas were more
frequent. Why isn't there a hyphen in to-day?  - p.22

The first letter of a sentence was capitalized starting
the 13th c. but was not consistently applied untli the
16th.  In manuscripts of the 4th to 7th c. the first
letter of a page was decorated, regardless of whether
it was the start of a sentence.  p.23

this is the kind of abuse, I say, along with Winston
Churchill, "up with which we shall not put".

Comma-Tose

(this is an aside: from Reader's Digest Jun 04 p. 123)

Authorities said the robber is a 6-foot tall, white male with a beard
weighing approximately 220 pounds.
	 [with pic showing man rolling beard in wheelbarrow]

My husband gave me an essay he wrote for a class, detailing his goals
after retirement.  One sentence did leap out at me: "After retiring my
wife, the kids and I plan to..."

Get tips on how to keep yourself safe from Trooper First Class Ronald
Yanica of the Maryland State Police.

What women like in men

That man was Aldus Manutius the Elder (1450-1515) and I will happily admit I
hadn't heard of him until about a year ago, but am now absolutely kicking
myself that I never volunteered to have his babies.
  [ The rise of printing in the 14th and 15th centuries created a need for a
    standardized system of punctuation, and Manutius not only invented italic
    type, Truss writes, but printed "the actual first semicolon (and believe
    me, this is exciting). ]

blurb:
Everyone knows the basics of punctuation, surely? Aren't we all taught at
school how to use full stops, commas and question marks? And yet we see
ignorance and indifference everywhere. In "Eats, Shoots & Leaves", Lynne
Truss dares to say that, with our system of punctuation patently endangered,
it is time to alook at our commas and semicolons and see them for the
wonderful and necessary things they are. This is a book for people who love
punctuation and get upset about it. From the invention of the question mark
in the time of Charlemagne to Sir Roger Casement "hanged on a comma"; from
George Orwell shunning the semicolon to Peter Cook saying Nevil Shute's three
dots made him feel "all funny", this book makes a powerful case for the
preservation of a system of printing conventions that is much too subtle to
be mucked about with.