I don't know if you saw my YT response to your reply, Lyndsey, but I love The TransAtlantic Pearl! Your comma obituary was so clever, including the sentences I had to read many times over. You didn't, however, mention the opposite end of the spectrum, the redundant and superfluous Oxford comma. My daughter and I have practically come to blows over this life-or-death issue.
In fact, I chalk it up to a psy-ops conspiracy to kill the comma! Was it not grammar obedience training, the grammar Gestapo, that first destroyed the comma's relevance? If, rather than substituting as a tidy little abbreviation for 'and', it was reduced to mere clutter, why not do a Marie Kondo and toss it out with the garbage! (I've never forgiven her for just throwing things out, btw, it's finding a good home for stuff that takes all the time and effort.)
The comma brings me joy! And while we're talking about turning punctuation into a totalitarian regime, who was given the authority to consign the single apostrophe to be imprisoned by the double quote? The single apostrophe connotes irony, the sly 'this word that I use shouldn't be taken at face value.' The greedy double had its function distinguishing actual quotes, it makes it confusing rather than clarifying that it encroached on the hapless apostrophe.
And don't get me started on the semi-colon only separating full sentences--that's what a period is for. What's left for the long series of complex phrases? Oh, that's where they mean to send all the out-of-work commas from texting. A prison camp muddling sense rather than ensconced elegantly between their candelabras of semi-colons!
ps I also posted a note on the second story, but you have to look at the YT to read it!
I'm throwing this comment out into the aether, just to see if it hooks a pearl. Inquiring minds want to know how you are, if you're okay? I sent a query through our friend Rat, who I met through you, but didn't hear an oyster bubble about you. Thinking of you fondly, always.
I don't know if you saw my YT response to your reply, Lyndsey, but I love The TransAtlantic Pearl! Your comma obituary was so clever, including the sentences I had to read many times over. You didn't, however, mention the opposite end of the spectrum, the redundant and superfluous Oxford comma. My daughter and I have practically come to blows over this life-or-death issue.
In fact, I chalk it up to a psy-ops conspiracy to kill the comma! Was it not grammar obedience training, the grammar Gestapo, that first destroyed the comma's relevance? If, rather than substituting as a tidy little abbreviation for 'and', it was reduced to mere clutter, why not do a Marie Kondo and toss it out with the garbage! (I've never forgiven her for just throwing things out, btw, it's finding a good home for stuff that takes all the time and effort.)
The comma brings me joy! And while we're talking about turning punctuation into a totalitarian regime, who was given the authority to consign the single apostrophe to be imprisoned by the double quote? The single apostrophe connotes irony, the sly 'this word that I use shouldn't be taken at face value.' The greedy double had its function distinguishing actual quotes, it makes it confusing rather than clarifying that it encroached on the hapless apostrophe.
And don't get me started on the semi-colon only separating full sentences--that's what a period is for. What's left for the long series of complex phrases? Oh, that's where they mean to send all the out-of-work commas from texting. A prison camp muddling sense rather than ensconced elegantly between their candelabras of semi-colons!
ps I also posted a note on the second story, but you have to look at the YT to read it!
I'm throwing this comment out into the aether, just to see if it hooks a pearl. Inquiring minds want to know how you are, if you're okay? I sent a query through our friend Rat, who I met through you, but didn't hear an oyster bubble about you. Thinking of you fondly, always.