Rowling further piqued readers' curiosity by admitting that the "half blood prince" of the title is neither Lord Voldemort or Harry himself. However, fans should not expect any further revelations; Rowling ended her message with "That's all I'm saying on THAT subject until the book's published."
Monarchists are sure to take umbrage, if the tabloids suggest that the title might be an adulterated reference to Prince Harry Pothead.
Posted by
abnu on Tuesday, June 29, 2004 @ 3:40 PM
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Yo-Yo: It's a toy; it's a sport; it's a verb. It's been a toy for centuries, known by many names throughout its history, including bandalore, quiz, twirler, whirl-a-gig, and other names in different cultures.
The yo-yo was commercialized in America in the 1920s by Pedro Flores, a Filipino immigrant who produced the first Yo-Yo by that name in California. Not only did Flores import the idea from his native Phillipines, but also the name for it; "Yo-Yo" meant something like "come come" or "come back" in the native Tagalog language.
If Pedro Flores is credited with naming the Yo-Yo, it is D.F. Duncan Sr., who is recognized for successfully building the brand. Duncan bought the business from Flores and first trademarked Yo-Yo in the United States in 1929. So successful was Duncan's marketing, the public adopted the term "yo-yo" and rival companies challenged Duncan's trademark. In 1965, the Federal Court of Appeals ruled that the term had become generic, and so could be used by anyone. Then, everyone got into the game.
Duncan successfully marketed and manufactured yo-yos for many decades from his hometown, Luck, Wisconsin. But, as luck would have it, the Duncan company went bankrupt during the yo-yo heyday of the 1960s. The Duncan brand was acquired by Flambeau, and is still a leading name in yo-yoing.
Now, in the 75th Anniversary year since Duncan trademarked the name for Flores's toy, the yo-yo craze is coming back. In addition to technological advances, the Internet is helping a new generation learn how to yo-yo and share yo-yo knowledge and skills over websites like the yoyoing blog. Just check out this amazing quicktime video showing the incredible skills of some very talented guys who have way too much time on their hands.
The World Yo-Yo Contest is one of the largest and oldest yo-yo competitions in the world. It has been running off an on since the 1930s and attracts players from around the world. This year, it will be on August 6-8 in Orlando, Florida.
Are you the World Yo-Yo Contest's biggest fan? If so, we want to know about it, and have you -- our loyal minions -- help get the word out about the best competition in the world!
What do you have to do? Simple! Do ANYTHING that lets people know about the World Yo-Yo Contest! Get USA Today to print up a front-page article about it! Sponsor a "World Yo-Yo Contest Appreciation Event" that gets your area's best players competing and excited about the World Yo-Yo Contest. Appear on David Letterman's "Stupid Human Tricks" and mention the World Yo-Yo Contest! Use your imagination!
How's that for a viral marketing campaign?
Posted by
abnu on Monday, June 28, 2004 @ 8:14 AM
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So, it was shocking to read in the press that Vice President Dick Cheney told a senator to F himself--or words to that effect. A spokesman for the vice president admitted there had been a frank exchange of views, but added, "That doesn't sound like the kind of language the vice president would use." In that regard, and leaving aside energy policy for a moment, it sure would be interesting to see a transcript of Vice President Cheney's conversations with Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia that weekend they went duck hunting. But, those private conversations are probably not something that could be disclosed to the American public, because of some "separation of powers" argument.
By the way, a Canadian Prime Minister, the late Pierre Elliot Trudeau, faced a similar controversy over his frank exchange of views in Parliament. Here's a news clip showing how Trudeau famously handled the fuddle-duddle incident in Canadian politics.
Posted by
abnu on Friday, June 25, 2004 @ 12:15 AM
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Smooth Operators:The word "smoothista" has been coined, recently, and is discussed on Language Log in two posts, here and here. It is surmised that "smoothista" is a neologism that is analogous to the word barista, a coffee bartender. According to the Wikipedia:
Since approximately 1990, the term barista (the Italian word for bartender - masculine or feminine) has been used in English to denote a professional maker of espresso coffee beverages. Prior to that time, the less elegant prevailing term was "espresso puller." The shift of terminology probably comes, at least in part, from the fact that most espresso machines manufactured since the 1980s no longer require pulling down on a big handle.
For those in the smoothie biz, it's also worth noting that the Internet domains smoothista.com and smoothistas.com are both available at this time, neither having been registered previously. It probably won't be long before these domain names are registered by some smoothie and, hopefully, used creatively--and "smoothista" becomes a familiar word on the street, and gets listed on a lexicon, like barista.
Posted by
abnu on Thursday, June 24, 2004 @ 9:46 PM
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Testa Rossa:By any other name, would the redhead from Maranello be so sweet?
If there was ever a car that epitomized the greed-is-good excesses of the Eighties, it was the Ferrari Testarossa. To purists, even its name represents a sell-out. The original 250 Testa Rossa road racer was not only shockingly beautiful, it performed beautifully on the racetrack as well, winning three World Sports Car Championships between 1958 and 1961.
The Testarossa of the Eighties, in contrast, had no racing pedigree whatsoever. It was, impure and not-so-simple, a car designed and built to cash in on an image. And since cashing in was what the Eighties were all about, it was the perfect vehicle for its time. The saving grace was, it was also a damn good automobile.
When it came time to name their hot new car for next year, Ford looked back to the Futura.
The Futura name is itself a bit retro. It first appeared on a Lincoln concept car in the 1960s, and was recycled repeatedly on a variety of show cars and production vehicles during the decades that followed. In Australia today, Ford sells a version of its Falcon model bearing the Futura designation.
But those naming plans backfired when the lawyers for Pep Boys Auto Parts sent Ford a letter complaining of potential conflict with their line of Futura performance tires. Then, Ford didn't know what to call its new car. It's not easy to think up exciting new names for cars, year after year, especially if you restrict the creative thinking to names that start with F. The naming conundrum caused problems for sales people at Ford, inhibiting their efforts to create prospective buyer anticipation for the car with no name, or worse, a car with a name that was being abandoned. As one writer put it in the Chicago Tribune, "There's no pent-up demand for vehicles dubbed 'formerly known as.'" At some point, the sales people just don't care what you call the F****** car, as long as you give it a name they can introduce to prospective buyers now looking for next year's new car.
While the Ford Futura name is alive and well in the land down under, others are having naming problems of their own in Australia. Mitsubishi Motors was doing just fine with its Magna, until they imported a hot French designer from their equity-partner, Mercedes Benz. Apparently, the pointy-nosed "Boulay look" for the Mitsubishi Magna wasn't fancied by the Aussies, and sales stalled. Now, almost nobody wants a Mitsubishi Magna. There's no time to retool the design for next year, so what's a car company to do? Dump the name Magna, in favour of...well, we won't know until the winning name is determined by a naming contest. Crikey!
Meanwhile, the attention-grabbing car in America is the new Dodge Magnum. Now, that's a name! And, it's got a powerful design and performance specs that make new car buyers all hot 'n' hemi, so there's a good chance the name will prove to be a good one.
UPDATE: Just a day after this post, the British press reported that Mazda UK is having naming problems with the numbering its latest flexible format people mover. The new vehicle, which offers five, six or seven seats, was going to be called Mazda4, not to correspond with the seating configuration, but to fit nicely into Mazda's numerical branding policy. Late in the marketing season for new cars, it was realized by the Japanese automaker that the number four is associated with doom and death in Asia, so the numerologists nixed the name Mazda4. The model will be making the rounds on the autoshow circuit as the Flexa, until an acceptable name or number is found. It's reported that "urgent market research" is underway.
UPDATE: The Detroit News reports that the Ford Futura is being renamed Fusion. Autos Insider says, "The Fusion name fits in with the Ford brand's strategy of beginning the names of its cars, minivans and crossover vehicles with the letter F."
Posted by
abnu on Wednesday, June 23, 2004 @ 11:19 PM
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Chess Queen Rooked: Zhu Chen's name is on a very elite list. The beautiful young chessmaster recently became aware of the value of her name, as a brand, when a U.S. sporting goods manufacturer applied for a trademark of her famous name for its own use, in China.
You'd think it might have occured to the reigning world chess champion, before now, that her name might be worth protecting--not that she's the only Zhu Chen in the world. Well, now she knows. "I am meeting with a lawyer regarding the case and will stand up to protect the rights to my name," Zhu told Beijing Youth Daily.
But, trademark protection aside, it's a shame that she didn't have the good sense to register the Internet domain name, ZhuChen.com, which was registered by someone else just a few months ago, apparently.
The world wide web is made up of three types of people: those who have registered their domain names, those who should have registered their domain names, and those who should register their domain names. Oh, and a fourth type; those who have no business registering someone else's name.
Posted by
abnu on Monday, June 21, 2004 @ 10:17 PM
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Posted by
abnu on Sunday, June 20, 2004 @ 10:05 AM
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Homophonic: Do/dew you know/no the right/write word?
1. anchors away/aweigh 2. to wait with baited/bated breath 3. to grin and bare/bear it 4. sound bite/byte 5. bloc/block voting 6. a ceded/seeded player 7. champing/chomping at the bit 8. a full complement/compliment of 9. to strike a responsive chord/cord 10. just deserts/desserts 11. doesn't faze/phase me 12. to have a flair/flare for 13. foul/fowl weather 14. hail/hale and hardy/hearty 15. a hair's/hare's breadth/breath 16. a seamless hole/whole 17. a friend in need is a friend in deed/indeed 18. to declare it doesn't jibe/jive 19. on the lam/lamb 20. to the manner/manor born/borne 21. marshal/martial law 22. to test one's medal/meddle/metal/mettle 23. might/mite and mane/main 24. beyond the pale/pail 25. to peak/peek/pique one's interest 26. pi/pie in the sky 27. pidgin/pigeon English 28. plain/plane geometry 29. to pore/pour over an article 30. praying/preying mantis 31. a matter of principal/ principle 32. rack/wrack one's brain 33. to give free rain/reign/rein 34. raise/raze Cain/cane 35. to pay rapped/ rapt/wrapped attention 36. with reckless/wreckless abandon 37. to reek/wreak/wreck havoc 38. right/rite of passage 39. a shoe-/shoo-in 40. to sic/sick the dog on someone 41. sleight/slight of hand 42. spit and/spitting image 43. the old stamping/stomping grounds 44. to stanch/staunch the flow 45. dire straights/straits 46. a toe-/tow-headed youth 47. to toe/tow the line 48. to swear like a trooper/trouper 49. all in vain/vane/vein 50. to wet/whet your appetite
See/sea the answers hear/here. (surf/serf hole/whole sight/site)
Posted by
abnu on Saturday, June 19, 2004 @ 11:41 PM
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Doggone Trademarks: Steak 'n Shake is suing Burger King in federal court to stop the burger giant from selling its "Angus Steak Burger," alleging trademark infringement. The neat legal question in this dog-fight is whether "steakburger" is generic. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports:
How did he get his idea for naming the burger? He was eating at Eddy's in Sedalia, and it offers a steakburger, too, he said. In fact, so does Goody's in Sedalia and another place in Kansas City, he added.
Indeed, Burger King has presented statements from the proprietors of those and other establishments that have sold products under the name "Steakburger." There's also the Web-based company, steakburger.com, and the gargantuan retailer, Wal-Mart, which promotes a "24-piece BBQ Steakburger Party Pack" on its Web site.
With deference to the local businesses, the reporter doesn't really get to the meat of the story: We Call It SteakBurger Beef. Premium Food for your Cherished Pets.
Posted by
abnu on Friday, June 18, 2004 @ 6:22 AM
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War of the Worlds Words: We don't review movies, and you won't catch us plugging Michael Moore's latest award-winning film, Fahrenheit 9/11, which opens nationwide on June 25th, but we have to mention a couple of new documentaries about people like us.
Take the bright, competitive and quirky kids in Spellbound, the marvelous documentary about the national spelling bee. Now imagine some of those youngsters as grown-ups, add profanity, drug use and bad facial hair, and you have a rough idea of what Word Wars is like.
And, you also have an idea what some Wordlabbers are like.
Posted by
abnu on Thursday, June 17, 2004 @ 10:02 AM
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Is this offal, or what? Maybe it would be a good idea to check out The Best of British, the American's guide to speaking British, before ordering pub grub or going to market in England.
In English supermarkets you will see a sign in the meat aisle with "offal" on it. In Texas it is referred to as organ meat - yuck! In the UK we love it. The most common offal is liver and kidney. My American friends tell me that offal is not eaten in the US. Maybe they should check out the ingredients of their hot dogs!
One can only imagine how unappetizing it might sound to an Englishman in America, when he's first offered a hot dog on a bun. Awful. You might think about that, if you're asked in England, "Would you like a pint of bitter with some bangers and mash, and mushy peas?"
And, don't get your knickers in a bunch when the barman asks if you like faggots. Reply with confidence, "I rather fancy 'em." You won't be disappointed. Take a look at these creative TV Adverts for Mr. Brain's. Cheeky panda!
Americans who want to learn all about Britain, and expats who miss the telly, can now watch BBC America, featuring The Office. Wickedly funny.
Posted by
abnu on Wednesday, June 16, 2004 @ 12:49 AM
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Just as "misspelling" is among the most common misspelled words, "pronunciation" is among the most commonly mispronounced words. Fitting, no?
In the list of mispronunciations, Dr. Language also notes that one should say "pernickety" and not "persnickety" adding, "You may think us too pernickety to even mention this one. It is a Scottish nonce word to which U.S. speakers have added a spurious [s]." So, we should not be surprised to see the eighth word on this new list submitted by readers of Merriam-Webster Online:
You may think us, too, persnickety for mentioning this.
Posted by
abnu on Tuesday, June 15, 2004 @ 12:13 AM
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I led the pigeons to the Flag: Today, the Supreme Court of the United States ducked an important constitutional question by ruling that the specific individual who brought the case doesn't have "standing" before the court to challenge the phrase "one Nation under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, because he doesn't have custody of his daughter. Happy Flag Day.
Posted by
abnu on Monday, June 14, 2004 @ 9:40 AM
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The Ten Worst Naming Blunders:Dummies love top ten lists, but not as much as worst ten lists. Coincidentally, the top ten ways people choose company and product names are, in fact, the ten worst ways to make such important decisions.
Posted by
abnu on Sunday, June 13, 2004 @ 9:51 AM
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Dutch Reagan - All American: Remembering an American hero, starring the Gipper as himself.
In his first big role, in "Knute Rockne – All American," Reagan had played George Gipp, the legendary Notre Dame football star. Thereafter Reagan would always be known as "the Gipper." In his death-bed scene Gipp would say with unforgettable pathos to his coach, Knute Rockne (played superbly by Pat O'Brien): "Just win one for the Gipper." The phrase would enter the language.
The San Diego Union-Tribune looks back on his wonderful life, from the chubby little baby of working-class parents who called him "Dutch," a nickname that stuck for a lifetime, to a movie star, to Governor of California , to President of the United States, the defining role of a lifetime he dedicated to winning the cold war and defeating communism.
"If we look to the answer as to why, for so many years, we achieved so much, prospered as no other people on Earth, it was because here, in this land, we unleashed the energy and individual genius of man to a greater extent than has ever been done before. Freedom and the dignity of the individual have been more available and assured here than in any other place on Earth. The price for this freedom at times has been high, but we have never been unwilling to pay that price."
Now, many people are pressing Congress to honor this heroic American president with a new currency design. It has been suggested that, perhaps, half the dimes should be minted with his face on the coin. And the Reagan Legacy Project is lobbying to have President Reagan's image replace that of Alexander Hamilton on the ten dollar bill. But that idea is fraught with problems, including arguments against defacing Hamilton. These well-intentioned ideas just don't seem well thought out.
There's a more fitting way to commemorate the 40th President of the United States in currency--a new $40 bill. More than just matching the value of the denomination of the note to the 40th presidency, a new $40 bill would afford an opportunity, on the reverse of the new bill, to depict an important national monument that is symbolic of the American values held in the highest regard by President Reagan. Perhaps, a new bill with Reagan on the face should have the Statue of Liberty on the reverse. "An inspiration to millions of immigrants, this statue is a universal symbol of freedom, democracy, and diplomacy."
Nearly a century after her dedication in 1886, Lady Liberty needed care and attention. In his first term in office, President Reagan created the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Commission to restore the statue to her original beauty. The statue was closed for two years and reopened on July 4, 1986 with a centennial celebration. Since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the symbol of American freedom and liberty has been closed to the public, but it is scheduled to be re-opened this July. What better time to announce a new $40 bill depicting Ronald Reagan on its face with the Statue of Liberty on its reverse, commemorating his role in the preservation of this national monument and the values for which she stands.
Posted by
abnu on Friday, June 11, 2004 @ 12:01 AM
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Leaders at Loggerheads: Presidents George W. Bush and Jacques Chirac found themselves at loggerheads at the Sea Island Summit when the leaders disagreed over amounts of debt reduction for Iraq and the appropriate role of NATO forces in country after turnover of sovereignty at the end of the month.
But great minds at this G8 summit were focussed not only on foreign affairs, but also on environmental concerns, according to the government website.
In keeping with President Bush's emphasis on environmental quality, the 2004 G8 Summit will showcase the complementary benefits of environmental stewardship and a strong economy.
One of the key objectives of the 2004 G8 Summit Planning Organization is to ensure that the activities supporting the planning and execution of the Sea Island Summit enhance the environmental assets of the greater Sea Island and Savannah areas.
Because giant sea turtles lay their eggs on the beaches around Sea Island, trying to get themselves off the endangered species list, it was a great opportunity to "moniker" the migration of eight loggerhead sea turtles with Global Positioning Systems--and names.
Elementary school children from across the state submitted names for the sea turtles in honor of the countries participating in the G8 Summit, which are the United States, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, and Russia. The G8 Summit is scheduled for June 8 – 10, 2004 on Sea Island, Georgia.
“Naming these sea turtles will raise awareness about the upcoming G8 Summit and increase recognition of the Georgia coast and its importance to species such as loggerhead sea turtles,” said Governor Sonny Perdue. “The sea turtles will be nesting on Georgia’s beaches during the G8 Summit, and special training has been provided to law enforcement personnel about the sensitivity of the coastal ecosystem including the nesting habits of this threatened species.”
Over 1,200 Georgia students in kindergarten through fifth grade took part in the sea turtle naming contest. The contest provided an opportunity for the classes to learn more about each of the eight participating G8 countries, including language, history, notable people, and culture. The entries were submitted to DNR who selected the eight winning names.
United States -- Cherokee Rose (Georgia ’s state wildflower)
France -- Bon Jour (means “Good Morning” in French)
Germany -- Ormanda (means “of the sea” in German) [*]
Japan -- Oki (means “open sea” in Japanese)
United Kingdom -- Tea Cake Italy -- Bellissima (means “most beautiful” in Italian)
Canada -- Aurora (for “Northern Lights”)
Russia -- Cherepakha (means “turtle” in Russian)
Now that you know each of them by name, you can track the migration of these loggerhead sea turtles throughout the nesting season.
Update 6/12/04: An interesting follow-on post by a Language Loggerhead (a Wordlabber with a degree in linguistics) elucidates the semantic morphology of the word:
Loggerhead is one of those complex words that seems to be work pretty well, despite being at best quasi-compositional for most of us. For most of my life, it was a sort of a double "cranberry morph" for me, since the only living meaning of logger -- someone who cuts down trees -- seems irrelevant except as a dimly resonant association, and the connection with head is almost equally obscure.
In his otherwise thorough analysis, the linguist did not comment on the variation of loggerhead in the southern dialect, lager head, which was probably as descriptive of the Sea Island Summit delegates as the turtles.
Harbor Island is a sleepy little oceanfront community that exudes relaxation and rejuvenation. While they do have tennis courts and swimming pools, we prefer sandy beach strolls, chicken-on-a-string crabbing, and watching the lager head sea-turtle hatchlings make their way to the ocean.
Posted by
abnu on Thursday, June 10, 2004 @ 8:04 AM
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Get Medieval: Dinky Dean Riesner, who died at age 83 in 2002, according to his obituary, was a child star of the 1920s and later a successful screenwriter best known for lines that made Clint Eastwood more famous than the writer, including, "Go ahead, make my day." His first screen credit was on The Code of the Secret Service (1939), which starred Ronald Reagan.
During World War II, Riesner served in the Coast Guard, before returning to writing and acting.
But it was not until the early 1970s that Riesner became more widely known for his screenplays. It was he who wrote such lines as "You have to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?" and "Go ahead, make my day" after being brought in by the director Don Siegel as the fifth screenwriter on Dirty Harry.
He also came up with the original "They'll tie you naked to a chair and get medieval with you" line in Charley Varrick (1973).
Yesterday, under intense interrogation by the Senate Judiciary Committee about a Justice Department memo to the President concerning the legality of torture, Attorney General John Ashcroft was not forced to sing.
So as not to take anything out of context, let us look at the full lyrics: "Let the eagle soar / like she's never soared before / from rocky coast / to golden shore / let the mighty eagle soar. / So with healing in her wings / as the land beneath her sings: / 'Only God, no other kings,' / let the mighty eagle soar. / This country's far too young to die / Though she's cried a bit for what we've put her through / she's soared above the lifted lamp / that guards sweet freedom's door / in the dews, the damps, the watchfires / of a nation torn by war / oh she's far too young to die / you can see it in her eye / she's not yet begun to fly / it's time to let the mighty eagle soar [refrain]."
Ashcroft wrote the text and music in 1997, when meditating on the nation's resilience against President Clinton's marital woes. The revised version above adds new war-oriented material and omits a stanza (and a dangling participle) of moral struggle: "We've still got a lot of climbing to do, / And we can make it if we try. / Built by toils and struggles / God has led us through."
Read the review of "Let the Eagle Soar" in the Columbia Political Review.
Posted by
abnu on Wednesday, June 09, 2004 @ 2:25 PM
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The Death of Lady Mondegreen: mighty hoax from little eggcorns grew. A mondegreen is a "slip of the ear" by which a phrase in a song is commonly misheard, such as Jimi Hendrix's "'scuse me while I kiss this guy" or "the girl with colitis goes by" in the Beatles song.
The term for such a mishearance was coined by Sylvia Wright, apparently in a November 1954 Harper's Magazine article entitled "The Death of Lady Mondegreen." The word "mondegreen" is, itself, a mondegreen of "They hae slain the Earl o' Murray and laid him on the green", from a 17th Century ballad The Bonnie Earl O' Murray, the last five words being misheard as "Lady Mondegreen".
More recently, the linguists at Language Log have noted several misperceptions of common phrases, not in lyrics, but in the vernacular; "internally grateful" and "inclimate weather" and "feint of heart" are but a few of the good ones they've found. Are linguists just splitting hares when they distinguish these from mondegreens, and call them eggcorns?
Posted by
abnu on Monday, June 07, 2004 @ 8:05 PM
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In a new definition of a fainting spell, the runner-up in the National Spelling Bee apparently fainted on Thursday when asked to spell "alopecoid" in the contest eventually won by a 14-year-old Indiana boy.
Autochthonous means indigenous (originating where it is found) and is an adjective used to describe geology, biology and physiology. The complete record of this year's spelling bee is posted here. You won't believe some of the words these kids know how to spell.
Posted by
abnu on Thursday, June 03, 2004 @ 7:29 PM
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The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation & Sex: On the dust jacket of her new book, Lynne Truss relates how she came up with the title Eats, Shoots & Leaves.
A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.
"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit.
The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder. "I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."
The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.
"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."
Everywhere one looks, there are signs of ignorance and indifference. What about that film Two Weeks Notice? Guaranteed to give sticklers a very nasty turn, that was – its posters slung along the sides of buses in letters four feet tall, with no apostrophe in sight. I remember, at the start of the Two Weeks Notice publicity campaign in the spring of 2003, emerging cheerfully from Victoria Station (was I whistling?) and stopping dead in my tracks with my fingers in my mouth. Where was the apostrophe? Surely there should be an apostrophe on that bus? If it were “one month’s notice” there would be an apostrophe (I reasoned); yes, and if it were “one week’s notice” there would be an apostrophe. Therefore “two weeks’ notice” requires an apostrophe!
Punctuation mistakes have been seen before in film titles. Dating Do's and Don'ts was a "no sex ed film" produced by the United States government in 1949. It's long been thought by grammarians that the title should properly have been Dating Dos and Don'ts. It has also been suggested that those who notice such punctuation errors might have problems just getting dates.
Misplaced apostrophes are called "greengrocers' apostrophes" or, in jest, "greengrocers apostrophe's" because of the frequency of apostrophic errors in the handwritten signs of grocery stores.
Now, if you've read this post all the way to the end, you just might be the type of person who's interested in this punctuation sticklers' quiz; if that seems too simple for you, try these.
Afterthoughts: Gordon McLauchlan has written an informative literary review of Eats, Shoots & Leaves, adding:
A far more sensible book on language, by an American Patricia T. O'Conner, is niftily called Woe is I, using a phrase from the English Bible, later adopted by Shakespeare and Byron, which pooh-poohs the rule that the verb "to be" should take the same case after it as before.
Truss would surely add a comma after the word "American," and recommend removal of the superfluous comma after "Bible" in that sentence.
Posted by
abnu on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 @ 8:48 PM
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Jennifer Hawkins' Day: Tonight, Jennifer Hawkins was crowned Miss Universe 2004. No wallflower, this beautiful Aussie choreographer probably never had to ask a boy to dance. Contrast her American great-aunt, Sadie Hawkins.
Sadie Hawkins was "the homeliest gal in the hills" who grew tired of waiting for the fellows to come a courtin'. Her father, Hekzebiah Hawkins, a prominent resident of Dogpatch, was even more worried about Sadie living at home for the rest of his life, so he decreed the first annual Sadie Hawkins Day, a foot race in which the unmarried gals pursued the town's bachelors, with matrimony the consequence. By the late 1930's the event had swept the nation and had a life of its own. Life magazine reported over 200 colleges holding Sadie Hawkins Day events in 1939, only two years after its inception. It became a woman empowering rite at high schools and college campuses, long before the modern feminist movement gained prominence. The basis of Sadie Hawkins Day is that women and girls take the initiative in inviting the man or boy of their choice out on a date, typically to a dance attended by other bachelors and their aggressive dates. When Al Capp created the event, it was not his intention to have the event occur annually on a specific date because it inhibited his freewheeling plotting. However, due to its enormous popularity and the numerous fan letters Capp received, the event became an annual event in the strip during the month of November, lasting four decades.
Sadie Hawkins Day made its debut in Al Capp's Li'l Abner strip November 15, 1937, and became an American folk event for generations to come. So, wasn't it a match made in naming and branding heaven when this Sadie married Dick Hawkins?
Lacking such brand awareness, and apparently not anticipating her worldwide fame and fortune, Jennifer Hawkins did not protect her domain name, which was recently registered by Jeff Hawkins of Hawkins Consulting (dot biz) in the United States.
Posted by
abnu on Tuesday, June 01, 2004 @ 10:18 PM
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Note the cool Fine Print: The content found on WordLab
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