Quotation Marks and Marks
My Globe hasn’t arrived yet, but I hope The Word takes on commas to give the NYT Online op-ed about the 2nd amendment a seconding motion “HOO-Rah!”. Cuts right through a bunch of hooey nonsense that many in this country take for a convenient truth.
Adam
That’s the problem with education, you can attempt to understand something in all its complexity or you can use it drive your own lowly agenda. But, lookee here, Adam, I just found myself, not where, I thought I’d be, in the 1950’s, but, in the 18th century.
“In the 18th century, punctuation marks were as common as medicinal leeches and just about as scientific. Commas and other marks evolved from a variety of symbols meant to denote pauses in speaking. For centuries, punctuation was as chaotic as individual speech patterns.”
Comment by michael — December 16, 2007 @ 10:09 am
Touche, you comma-terrorist, you … !
Comment by adam — December 16, 2007 @ 12:21 pm
I can imagine myself, waging war, on all, those 18th century comma violators!
Adam, thank for introducing me to the diction of the second ammendment. Fascinating that its clear meaning has been so blatantly misinterpreted to nefarious ends for the last 100 years.
How ’bout we find a Clairvoyant that could enable us to interview the Framers to learn the intended meaning, and tape that for the Supreme Court hearing?
Comment by smiling — December 17, 2007 @ 9:16 am
Or a time machine.
Comment by rakkity — December 17, 2007 @ 12:55 pm