Merrily goes the donkey...
Jan. 14th, 2004 01:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ventaA round up of minor arcanities:
Today's word from the calendar is assishness. So far the calendar has produced around half-and-half words which could feasibly be slotted into conversations - this is one such, meaning (unsurprisingly) "asinine quality, stupidity". So off you go: use it today three times in conversation, and once in your LJ.
Having now finished reading Eats, Shoots and Leaves, I can report that I am a fan of the Oxford comma. Which is apparently the correct name for the controversial comma inserted after the penultimate item in a list. So: our main weapons are surprise, our nice red uniforms, and a fanatical dedication to the Pope. See the comma after uniforms ? That's an Oxford comma, that is. I've got no idea why it's so named. And while I don't always put it in lists, sometimes it's very handy. Everyone with an interest in writing should read Eats, Shoots and Leaves, by the way. It manages to steer a pleasingly sane course between the extremes of "punctuation is set in stone" and "punctuation doesn't matter at all".
And, looking for something else, I found this website. Which contains all sorts of odd facts about how to splice tape and create different effects thereby. I don't believe I'm likely to do this, but it interested me none-the-less. Reminded me of the day a schoolfriend and I discovered that you could turn tape inside out to play songs backwards, and spent an educational afternoon looking for hidden messages in songs. We didn't find any.
Today's word from the calendar is assishness. So far the calendar has produced around half-and-half words which could feasibly be slotted into conversations - this is one such, meaning (unsurprisingly) "asinine quality, stupidity". So off you go: use it today three times in conversation, and once in your LJ.
Having now finished reading Eats, Shoots and Leaves, I can report that I am a fan of the Oxford comma. Which is apparently the correct name for the controversial comma inserted after the penultimate item in a list. So: our main weapons are surprise, our nice red uniforms, and a fanatical dedication to the Pope. See the comma after uniforms ? That's an Oxford comma, that is. I've got no idea why it's so named. And while I don't always put it in lists, sometimes it's very handy. Everyone with an interest in writing should read Eats, Shoots and Leaves, by the way. It manages to steer a pleasingly sane course between the extremes of "punctuation is set in stone" and "punctuation doesn't matter at all".
And, looking for something else, I found this website. Which contains all sorts of odd facts about how to splice tape and create different effects thereby. I don't believe I'm likely to do this, but it interested me none-the-less. Reminded me of the day a schoolfriend and I discovered that you could turn tape inside out to play songs backwards, and spent an educational afternoon looking for hidden messages in songs. We didn't find any.
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no subject
Date: 2004-01-14 06:55 am (UTC)[example snipped]
Er... so you don't like it because it only does one job, not two ? Do you have a better solution ?
I like what it does, when it does it. I didn't say it was infallible :)
no subject
Date: 2004-01-14 08:08 am (UTC)Actually, this is partially a reaction to the pedantry of OED lexicographers, who will completely ignore the meaning of an email, whilst (or while ;) still complaining about the missing comma.
Of course, the OED is a bit of a special case, since it does consist mainly of lists, and quite frequently lists of lists. In normal writing, you rarely get such constructs, and the Oxford Comma works quite adequately: I've re-started using it myself!