ratiocinations out of thin air/a blog about this that and the other thing
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I JUST PUT the finishing touches on a rewrite and update of an old article of mine on ’60s teen model Colleen Corby. While rereading the text and checking to see if the images were linked to their source, the opening sentence caught my attention. It read, “The term ‘supermodel’ didn’t exist when Colleen Corby … READ MORE
THE BIG BANG THEORY is an endlessly rewatchable show: aside from the fabulous characters and the intertwining of their personal lives, the dialog is chock-a-block full of humor of all sorts, from the zany to the kind that requires the viewer either have a reasonable IQ or access to the Internet to look things up. … READ MORE
THE HEADLINE caught my attention, as it was supposed to: “Advanced OOP For WordPress.” As should be obvious to most people familiar with newspaper, magazines, and now online articles, the headline is usually the first thing that most readers see in any article. Consequently, it is usually the first thing they read. … READ MORE
THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE has been around for almost one-hundred years, but it didn’t start its march to universal acclaim until 1959. That year saw the first edition of William Strunk’s little book expanded from 43 pages to 78 pages by “co-author” E.B. White. Forty years earlier, Professor Strunk had published the book as … READ MORE
WE HEAR IT and we say it incorrectly! We usually hear “fortay” when people say “forte,” an almost universally mispronounced word! I can’t say it’s a part of everyone’s daily vocabulary, but if you read enough you’ll come across it regularly. I’m writing this because it was used in a couple of movies that … READ MORE
WILLIAM STRUNK JR was Professor of English at Cornell University. In 1918, he self-published a guide for his students on English usage and writing called The Elements Of Style. The slim book consisted primarily of eight “elementary rules of usage” and ten “elementary principles of composition” accompanied by a “few matters of form.’ … READ MORE
ASIDE FROM MY OWN WORK, I have edited several books and many articles for others. I have no formal training in, merely study about editing. I never used the field’s accepted nomenclature or proof-reading symbols. I just used my Strunk & White and everything worked out hunky-dory for those writers!
LAST NIGHT’S SLUGFEST consisted of ninety minutes of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton calling each other names (“liar” popped up more than once) and declaring each other untrustworthy and unfit for office. Policy differences and other matters that should concern these two candidates were set aside so that each could impugn the basic character … READ MORE
THE LAST WORD ANYONE would use to describe me is “conservative”—at least not regarding most issues related to politics. But there’s more to life than politics: I remain old-fashioned on the issue of prescriptive versus descriptive dictionaries (strongly believing in the former) and the misuse of the designated hitter in major league baseball (not at … READ MORE
EVERY READER OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE has seen those three dots in the midst of an otherwise normal sentence that tells them something special is happening. These dots are called an ‘ellipsis’ and are usually associated with text quoted from another source. Most readers know that these dots indicate that words in the original text … READ MORE
I CAPITALIZE EVERY WORD in every title that I write in the text sections of my books and essays. That includes capitalizing the definite and indefinite articles and those perky prepositions! I always have and no doubt I always will. I do this for several reasons, which I share here in a gesture of bonhomie. … READ MORE
LAST YEAR, I published an article titled “on william strunk and elements of style (and concise vigorous writing)” here on Neal Umphred Dot Com. It’s as boring as the title makes it sound—you’d have to give a damn about the most important figure and the most important book in the history of American … READ MORE
I PUT DOWN MY MUG OF COFFEE and reached into my desk drawer and dexterously pulled out my miniature samurai-sword letter-opener with the dropbear-tooth handle. After staring into space for a few seconds and mumbling, “That’s not a knife—this is a knife,” I took a few swipes in front of me with the foot-long … READ MORE
MY PREVIOUS ARTICLE ON DASHES was titled “On Those Pesky Dashes As Punctuation Marks” and addressed the em-dash (—), the en-dash (–), and the hyphen (-). It should have included some suggestions on the proper use of the forward leaning slash (/). After all, graphically the forward-slash, or virgule, is just an upright, … READ MORE
USE OF THE DASH FOR PUNCTUATION is a lost art in contemporary American English (AmE) and British English (BrE) for many writers and apparently many typesetters. It’s a shame, as a well-placed dash or ten can ease the flow of reading and therefore lead to increased understanding and pleasure. Here I address the way that … READ MORE
CBDRILONCWRC IS NOT AN ACRONYM! It’s gobbledygook, or at least an initialism that looks like gobbledygook. But it’s CBDRILONCWRC that inspired “Meet the Acronym That Just Might Save the World,” an article by Robinson Meyer that arrived this morning in my Mother Jones email newsletter. And it comes with a sub-title: “It’s 12 letters … READ MORE