(identity 'myron)

Tue, 26 Apr 2005

Holding Hands [/misc]

Hey if you're confused about seeing President Bush walking around with the Saudi Prince holding his hand, I believe it's Arab custom for friendship. It's no reason to freak out.

// posted at 09:46. permalink   comments

Quotes and Punctuation [/misc]

Came across this blog entry that settles an old dispute I had about quotation marks and where added punctuation marks belong. It turns out that, in American English at least, you can insert periods or commas before a closing quotation mark. However, all other kinds of punctuation have to come after the quote. This makes sense because if you read a lot, this probably pops out at you as much as it does to me:

This is an example of the "chilling effect;" there are others.

Ew. On the other hand, British style leaves all added punctuation marks outside the quotation marks. It's quite logical since it avoids modifying the quote. It just looks funnier to our eyes, or mine at least, because most books printed here follow American style.

Call it some kind of a Canadian compromise, but I've always used a mix of the two styles depending on what type of quote it is. If it's a direct quote, say of someone speaking, I use American style but if it's just a fragment, then I use British style:

She said, "Bite me."

This is an example of the "chilling effect".

// posted at 09:31. permalink   comments