Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Punctuation?!
Matthew:
What is the best question you have ever been asked? Also, how do you feel about parentheses?
-- Jay, University City
Mr. Alice:
When I get to the end of this sentence, why will I use a question mark?
-- !, @ home
Onceuponatimealltextlookedlikethis. Someone first had to invent the space between words. Once that was handled, an ancient Greek librarian one slow day devised a system of marks to help lecturers properly read texts aloud. One dot between words indicated a short pause, two a medium pause, three a long one. Punctuation began as guides for speakers, not as clarification of meaning for silent readers. Soon the period, colon, and semicolon were not enough. Someone invented the / (virgule), indicating a very quick pause, which mutated into our comma. In the 12th Century, tired of inventing things, scribes began to borrow from musical notation in Gregorian chants. One mark, a sort of a seven with a dot under it, told a chanter to elevate his intonation at the end of a phrase, as a speaker does when asking a question. So blame the question mark on lazy 12th-century Italian scribes. Parentheses were added in the 1400s; and apparently no one exclaimed before the 1700s. So how do I feel about parentheses? Regular visitors know I'm fascinated by their power and simplicity. A writer can proclaim any nonsense as long as it's encased in parens. And readers know they can skip it. Nothing in parentheses was ever on a final exam. Best question? "Where exactly, Matthew, would you like us to mail your very large check?"
Here's something you might be interested in.
Punctuation?!
Punctuation?!
Matthew:
What is the best question you have ever been asked? Also, how do you feel about parentheses?
-- Jay, University City
Mr. Alice:
When I get to the end of this sentence, why will I use a question mark?
-- !, @ home
Onceuponatimealltextlookedlikethis. Someone first had to invent the space between words. Once that was handled, an ancient Greek librarian one slow day devised a system of marks to help lecturers properly read texts aloud. One dot between words indicated a short pause, two a medium pause, three a long one. Punctuation began as guides for speakers, not as clarification of meaning for silent readers. Soon the period, colon, and semicolon were not enough. Someone invented the / (virgule), indicating a very quick pause, which mutated into our comma. In the 12th Century, tired of inventing things, scribes began to borrow from musical notation in Gregorian chants. One mark, a sort of a seven with a dot under it, told a chanter to elevate his intonation at the end of a phrase, as a speaker does when asking a question. So blame the question mark on lazy 12th-century Italian scribes. Parentheses were added in the 1400s; and apparently no one exclaimed before the 1700s. So how do I feel about parentheses? Regular visitors know I'm fascinated by their power and simplicity. A writer can proclaim any nonsense as long as it's encased in parens. And readers know they can skip it. Nothing in parentheses was ever on a final exam. Best question? "Where exactly, Matthew, would you like us to mail your very large check?"
Comments