Notch That, Mothernotcher.

News alert: 

In the course of Facebook-messaging one of my friends this morning, I managed to invent some new and awesome slang.  (Read: I was thumb-typing so badly that my cursing was cupertinoed into a completely different term, which I am now using as an all-purpose expletive.)

This magic word is notch, and it can be used in multiple ways to express a variety of ideas. Check out this example, courtesy of my friend Brian:

I was so notched last night I got notched side ways, but it turned out it was a tranny from the Jerry Springer show and that really notched my mind.

Enjoy!

I Totally Want This: Grammar Nerd Corrective Labels

I will totally stick these on e-mails from the CEO.

Temple of Commerce - Grammar Nerd Corrective Label Pack

Does seeing a sign that reads TRY THEY’RE “SANDWICH’S” send you into a fit of apoplectic rage?

Grammar Nerd Corrective Label Pack to the rescue! Simply select the appropriate corrective label from this affordable, laser-printed collection and prepare to dole out frontier-style grammar justice.

Punctuate This

Today is National Punctuation Day; act accordingly!

I found the list of suggestions for How to Celebrate National Punctuation Day to be extremely helpful, and the sight of Punctuation Man breaking with the AP to endorse the serial comma to be oddly inspiring.

Shunned by the Associated Press (AP) Stylebook, the serial comma is still widely accepted by educators, grammarians, and literary circles, including Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style and the Chicago Manual of Style.

I will not, however, be cooking the official meal loaf of Punctuation Day, despite how, uh, tasty it looks . . . Question mark, indeed!

I See This All the Time

I guess this sandwich was hot once, but no guarantees on its temperature or sexiness by the time you manage to eat it.

— the "blog" of "unnecessary" quotation marks

The Convenient Mart across the street from me has a sign like this . . . as does pretty much every CM around. It works my nerves every time — nice to see it get its due online.

Poofreading Emergency

Apparently Photoshop still doesn't have spell-check . . . (I'm assuming this is not a hand-drawn font.)

CMOS FAQ: Like Leno's Jaywalking, but for Copy Editors

Remember how someone at some point told you that there's no such thing as a stupid question?

Well, they were wrong.

June Questions and Answers

Q. Is there a period after an abbreviation of a country if it is terminating a sentence? “I went to U.K..”

A. Seriously, have you ever seen two periods in a row like that in print? If we told you to put two periods, would you do it? Would you set your hair on fire if CMOS said you should?

— Chicago Style Q & A

Too Late to Book a Plane Ticket?

From TIME OUT NEW YORK:

Elements of Style Anniversary
Tonight, 6:30 p.m.

Grammar nerds, unite! And then head to this lecture, featuring NPR contributor Roy Blount, Jr. and Atlantic columnist Barbara Wallraff, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of the seminal writing guide by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White.

I saw it mentioned in my latest issue of Copyediting, which I finally got around to reading over lunch the other day.

I have a vintage edition of Elements of Style at home, but I forget what year it was published. Anyhow,  I don't even refer to it that much — it's all Chicago Manual all the time around here, except for those situations where the reference guide and usage manual of the Catholic News Service can shed some light on a sticky stylistic wicket. 

See also:

Classic writing guide celebrates 50th anniversary
William Kates, Associated Press  
March 20, 2009

Tuesday Timewaster: Grammar Quizzes

As a follow-up to last Wednesday's National Grammar Day, the weekly Copyediting e-mail linked to the Triangle Grammar Guide quizzes, part of the Triangle Grammar Guide blog by Pam Nelson at The News and Observer.

As the graphic indicates, I took Quiz 33, and received a perfect score. Yay, me!

Lazy Monday

Totally stealing this from the Copyediting newsletter because I have nothing more interesting to say . . .

Except for this: Although I'm still only in the opening pages of The Subversive Copyeditor, I'm liking it very much and would therefore recommend purchasing it as part of your Grammar Day celebration.

Subject: National Grammar Day

It's not official, of course, but the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar (S.P.O.G.G.) and its sponsor, MSN Encarta, have declared March 4 to be National Grammar Day. I've thought of a few ways you could celebrate it:

• Support a grammarian: buy a book. On the affordable end, try the very readable Woe is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English, by Patricia T. O'Conner. If you can splurge, acquaint yourself with "the definitive grammar for the new millennium" (according to the marketing copy), The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, by Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum.
  
  
• Read the Language Log blog (where Pullum and others share their thoughts free of charge).
  
  
• Check out the Bad Grammar Hall of Fame playlist on the S.P.O.G.G. Web site. It's a collection of songs the society's members say they love despite the bad grammar in them, and you can play all 12 of them using a media player that is provided right on the site—perfect mood music for the National Grammar Day party I know you’re planning.
  
  
• Split an infinitive.
  
  
• Renew your subscription to Copyediting. (Okay, I'm biased.)
  
  
• Find a fellow grammar lover, then debate the use of singular blogs in the following sentence, taken from the description of a blog on the S.P.O.G.G. Web site:
  
  The Syntax Sisters
  United by blood and a love of grammar, this pair of sisters blogs about language and grammar using examples of real-world errors.
  
  
• Send your reports of how you celebrated National Grammar Day to me at wendalyn.nichols@copyediting.com, and I'll share your stories next week.

— Copyediting Tip of the Week

March 2, 2009

Freaky!

In the past, some of my friends have complained about the bizarre and utterly random suggestions Amazon likes to make, which are supposedly based on your past consumption and the general browsing and purchasing patterns of people like you.

I don't recall having an exact term for these, though, so I'll second the nomination put forth by Paul Lamere, who writes the blog Duke Listens: freakomendation.


He explains it a bit in Watching a new word spread through the blogosphere - Duke Listens!, but the term is almost self-explanatory, and therein lies its beauty.



Anyhow, if you think the suggestions you get from Amazon, Netflix, iTunes, et al. are wacky, check out some of the posts in his Freakomendations category.

For example:

Because you enjoyed F**k, you will need to see In The Womb (or it may just sit on top of your DVD player for 9 months).

I'm really not making these up.

Posted on May 19, 2008

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Now playing on iTunes: Fantasia - Baby Makin' Hips
via FoxyTunes

Like the Great White Hunter, Stalking across the Serengeti

Typo Eradication Advancement League: Typo Hunt Across America

My new friend’s expression changed from confusion to sympathy in a flash. “Oh, of course. You know, there was another sign around here that was missing an apostrophe. . . . I wish I could remember where it was. . . .”

I hope that someday not too long from today, she will encounter that lost sign once again, and remember our conversation, and take up her own instrument of correction. We at TEAL have not been graced with superpowers, only a simple devotion to the just. Nothing separates you and us. You can do exactly the same thing in your own neighborhood. I’ve already heard from more than a few kindred souls out there who have been moved by the League to make a difference.

In April, I found the above post on Jeff Deck's blog through an ABC News story on him (Road Scholar Edits America). I saved it in my drafts folder and essentially forgot about it until his name popped up last week in a link on the Copyediting listserv.

Apparently he took things a smidge too far. Schadenfreude ensued! In the aftermath, I came across this comment, which I love mostly for the mistress reference.

August 22, 2008 at 9:31 pm

Frankie Machine says:

I worked as a copy editor and proofreader for ten years.

I was the best there ever was. Strunk and White. The Chicago Manual of Style. MLA. Even AP. I knew them all. They were my mistresses.

But I had to leave the profession because, eventually, I would have faced one of three fates:

1. I would have turned into these psychos;
2. I would have drowned in the bottle;
3. I wouldn’t have been able to pay my phone bill.

In those ten years, I came to hate amateurs like this. If they love grammar and punctuation so much, let them hold a job where they get paid to correct it for eight hours a day. That would be a fair and just punishment for them.

Let it go, Deck and Henderson. Let it go.

Sincerely,

Frankie Machine

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Now playing: Better Than Ezra - Conjunction Junction
via FoxyTunes

Of Interest to Word Nerds

You'll probably have to zoom in, since the actual e-mail message is in tiny print, but I find it amusing.







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Now playing on iTunes: Teddy Bears - Cobrastyle
via FoxyTunes
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Computer 1, People 0

As a former high school yearbook staffer, I can't help but simultaneously laugh and cringe at this Associated Press story.

Spell-check run amok changes names in Pa. yearbook

Mon Jun 2, 3:07 PM ET

A computer spell-checker run amok christened several Pennsylvania high school students with new — and in some cases unflattering — last names.

Middletown Area High School's yearbook listed Max Zupanovic as "Max Supernova," Kathy Carbaugh as "Kathy Airbag" and Alessandra Ippolito as "Alexandria Impolite," just to name a few.

"It was kind of funny, but kind of rude at the same time," Ippolito said.

The mistakes were found on four of the yearbook's 176 pages, co-editor Amanda Gummo said.

Ed Patrick of Taylor Publishing, which printed the book, said his company is responsible for the errors and will provide free stickers printed with the correct names.

"It happens all the time, every year," Patrick said. "Look at any yearbook in the country."

I worked with Taylor Publishing when I was on the yearbook staff in college. We were responsible for all of our own goofs, though.

The company flew the exec staff out to the Dallas HQ for a few days at the start of every school year. I went my senior year, and we toured the factory, met with a graphic designer, and picked our theme and colors. Afterwards we hung out in Dallas. So, I have a lot of photos of Andy and Jon, the photo editors, making goofy faces next to a cardboard cutout of Elvis holding pies, trying on various cowboy hats, and kneeling next to the grassy knoll. Oh, and I still have the menu I stole from the Hard Rock. Good times.




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Now playing on iTunes: The Righteous Brothers - Little Latin Lupe Lu
via FoxyTunes

Random Grab Bag

I had mini-posts started on some various language-related topics, but they're not really things I can develop further, and I don't have anything else to talk about (must . . . not . . . jinx . . . Indians), so I figured I would just lump them all together.

• I was surprised and intrigued by the origins of "If by ___ , you mean blah blah blah, then yes." Assuming Wikipedia can be trusted: If-by-whiskey.
  
  


• When the heck did the word spendy get so popular? Is this all of a part with "teh Interwebs" lingo? I guess not, since the entry in Merriam-Webster claims it originated in 1985 and is chiefly used in the Northwest.
  
  


• It has been brought to my attention that I say "Hot dog!" a lot. I tend to use it in the sense of making an exclamation about a pleasant surprise; usually in lieu of "Awesome!" or "Sweet!" As you can imagine, I have been roundly mocked for this.
  
  

Mark Your Calendars

The Copy Editor Tip of the Week clued me in to a most important date: National Punctuation Day on September 24 (yesterday). Mark your calendar for next year!

In the meantime, Terry Pratchett has a new book coming out. I'm requesting it from the library.

National Punctuation Day

I can't believe I would have missed it.

One of Copy Editor's biggest boosters sent me a note to ask whether I knew that Monday, September 24, was National Punctuation Day. You can find out more at http://www.nationalpunctuationday.com/.

How will you celebrate? I have visions of armies of editors marching with white paint, removing scare quotes and greengrocer's apostrophes from signs everywhere. So, I thought I'd make sure you're all clear about how to spot these offenders so that when you get arrested for defacing private property, at least you won't have been wrong. (How embarrassing would it be to face a judge who, stylebook in hand, sternly explained that you'd painted out a legitimate piece of punctuation?)

Scare quotes are quotation marks used for emphasis when they should not be. Quotation marks around a sentence mean "Somebody else said this." Quotation marks around a phrase show that it's explaining the meaning of something (as in the previous sentence). And quotation marks around a term show that it's unusual in some way—it's new, it's what someone else said, it's a bit suspect—so that a writer can distance himself or herself from the term.

So, a sign that says "FARM FRESH" EGGS is not emphasizing how fresh the eggs are. It's saying that somebody else said they're fresh, but the sign maker is reserving judgment. Want a field guide to scare quotes? Check out the following blog (another link sent in by a reader): http://quotation-marks.blogspot.com/.

The greengrocer's apostrophe is an apostrophe used to make a plural. These abound in produce stands (the original term is British, hence "greengrocer"), as in "TOMATOE'S $2.50 LB." In one of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels (I wish I could remember which one), there was a character who was a greengrocer. In all his dialogue, the plurals had apostrophes. I went from really liking to absolutely adoring Pratchett when I saw that.

If you do get arrested this week, remind your friendly "Police" Officer's that September is Be Kind to Editors and Writers Month. Really. Our booster told me that one, too.

Tip of the Week is a free weekly supplement provided to subscribers of Copy Editor newsletter. We welcome your questions and comments. Please submit them to editor Wendalyn Nichols at wendalyn.nichols@copyeditor.com.

http://www.copyeditor.com/

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Public Service Announcement

September 19 Is International Talk Like a Pirate Day

Official TLAPD Web Site

Prepare for tomorrow's festivities— get your party kit and some eyepatches.

Maybe some t-shirts will help you get in the mood. (Or perhaps you need a thong? They have two styles: "PILF" and "Pirate's Booty." Urk.)

P.S.

I followed Megan L's lead and signed up for Blog Rush. We'll see how it goes.

New Vocabulary Words

Has the Word Spy been following me? Here are some new entries that apply to my life in one way or another:

• Floordrobe



• Carbage
  
  
• Gadget porn



• Potterhead
  

An Evening with the Puzzle Master

I think that An Evening with the Puzzle Master would be interesting, but I'm not paying $150 for it.

I only like the easy kind of crossword puzzles anyway — the non-brain strainer that comes in the weekly television schedule. My mom does the New York Times puzzle, except it's hard to do it in the Beacon Journal because they never list the puzzle title. Knowing the puzzle title helps you figure out some of the clues. I can't believe puzzle aficionados haven't inundated the Beacon with angry letters before now. I would lead the e-mail campaign, but I don't even do the puzzle, so what do I really care.

I did go see Wordplay last year, however, and I enjoyed it very much.

In other news: I think I've found Cathy's birthday present!

Typos I Have Known: Volume 2

So, last week I marked up a page to include the complete title of the work: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

The "corrected" page came back to me as The Adventures of Huckleberry Firm.

Which is obviously the, ahem, adult version of that celebrated work.

But which also brought Jim "Huckleberry" Thome to mind in a gross kind of way.

Typos I Have Known

I came across this flub on the Hero Arts Web site last night, and it made me laugh.

I wasn't imbibing any liquids at the time, so it wasn't nearly as funny as my typo encounter at lunchtime yesterday. That's when Cathy reminded me of the time we almost left the l out of public in one of our publications. I started laughing, and the Arnold Palmer almost went up my nose, much to her delight.