University commas
From xkcd: “The Oxford one is the most famous, but many major universities have their own comma.”
Chicago-sryle changes
Prison for punctuation
Despots and wanna-be despots everywhere hate being mocked, don’t they?
Possessive forms of Harris and Walz
“Grammar geeks are in overdrive,” says a New York Times article, which presents the choice as “apostrophe hell.” Not really. The best solution is to add ’s to make each name possessive.
A review: Anne Curzan, Says Who?
Again and again I found myself at odds with her perspective. Part of what put me off, wrongly or rightly, is the book's relentless cheeriness: the “kinder, funner ” of the title, the too-frequent use of exclamation points. A larger problem is Curzan’s division of the individual psyche into “grammando” and “wordie,” both a matter not of a speaker/writer but of a listener/reader responding to other people’s words.
John McWhorter’s apostrophes
If John McWhorter really wants to eliminate most apostrophes, he had better seek alternative publishers, no?
Weevil- and hyphen-free
A slip amid the sweet potatoes, still without a hyphen.
Trump punctuation
“ ‘It is my understanding that he liked to use the Oxford comma,’ she added.”
Apostrophes, missing
From the BBC: “North Yorkshire Council to phase out apostrophe use on street signs.”
The non-breaking hyphen
A lesser-known hero of punctuation,
Taylor Swift and the apostrophe
The New York Times addresses a burning question of the day: Should there be an apostrophe in the title of Taylor Swift’s forthcoming album Tortured Poets Department ?
Oxford comma wars
From Jack Shepherd’s On Words and Up Words : “Taking Stock of the Oxford Comma Wars.” Included: the real-life source for the Oxford-less formulation “my parents, Ayn Rand and God.”
Pence, comma
“You know I don’t think I have the authority to change the outcome”: and the absence of a comma has the authority to change everything.
The Apostrophe Protection Society
It’s back.
A CMOS quiz
From The Chicago Manual of Style, a new quiz: Other Languages.
Dialogue and the comma
At CMOS Shop Talk, Carol Sallers asked, “Is a Comma Needed to Introduce Dialogue?” And she answered, “Yes, at least sometimes.”
A sharpener sharpener
From Zits: a pencil sharpener-sharpener. Or a pencil-sharpener sharpener.
No[,] hurry[!]
A former Miss Hong Kong almost died because of a doctor’s unpunctuated text.
“Hyphen killer”
Henry Furhmann (1957–2022), the Los Angeles Times editor who pushed to end -American constructions.
Coffey, comma, ay caramba
Who gives a darn about an Oxford comma, as The New York Times might ask? That would be Thérèse Coffey — Liz Truss ally, head of the UK’s Department of Health and Social Care, and punctuation peever. Coffey hates the Oxford comma, is unashamed to say so, and wants it removed from her department’s written communications.
What commas don’t fix
There’s a mistaken clue in Evan Birnholz’s Washington Post Sunday crossword: 102-D, six letters, “What commas may fix.” The answer: RUNONS. But no number of commas can fix a run-on sentence.
House hyphens
The Consumer-Fuel-Price-Gouging-Prevention Act?
The non-breaking hyphen
One exists.
“Cold ellipses”
Dippin’ Dots and punctuation.
Area man patents punctuation mark
It’s the Rhetoricon™, for use “at the end of a sentence, phrase, statement or comment that is both rhetorical and sarcastic.”
E-mail, or email ?
Bryan Garner weighs in.
John Richards (1923–2021)
The founder of The Apostrophe Protection Society.
How to improve writing (no. 90)
It’s easy to overuse semicolons.
From a BuzzFeed “grammar” quiz
I’d say that neither you nor I can trust this BuzzFeed grammar quiz. Or “grammar” quiz, as most of the questions have to do with idiom, spelling, or punctuation.
Not done yet
In today’s Family Circus, Billy explains punctuation: “That’s a hyphen. It means the word isn’t done yet.”