Author Topic: Dear Expert (Read 165638 times)

BlackBlade · « **Reply #200 on:** November 23, 2010, 09:20:22 AM »

One of the reasons I get frustrated with Quentin Tarantino is that I feel he falls back on swearing way too often. People are often in awe at his ability to write dialogue, but I get pretty tired with swearing, more swearing, and then word games on swearing just to shake things up. It's poor writing IMHO.

When I watch a movie though where a character is less than educated and so fills in a lot of blanks with swearing, it doesn't bother me nearly as much.

pooka · « **Reply #201 on:** November 23, 2010, 02:49:48 PM »

I've never gotten frustrated with Quentin Tarantino since the only work of his I've seen was his supporting role in Desperado.

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #202 on:** November 23, 2010, 04:01:10 PM »

Quote from: pooka on November 23, 2010, 02:49:48 PM

I've never gotten frustrated with Quentin Tarantino since the only work of his I've seen was his supporting role in Desperado.

which was f-ing terrible.

(OK, just kidding, I don't know any of his stuff.)

I feel a little bad all the sudden that I never swear when speaking but I have little problem writing swear words. (not the really bad ones, though I've been known to do it.) That's a new brand of internet hypocrisy, I suppose.

In speaking, I really enjoy using the weirdest euphemisms I can come up with. My favorite is "Sun River bridge!"

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #203 on:** November 24, 2010, 10:02:45 AM »

My favorite is "flanken" (pronounced with an "ah" --"FLAHNK-en"), which really just means beef short ribs, but which sounds delightfully rude.

Scott R · « **Reply #204 on:** December 02, 2010, 08:21:16 AM »

The only place I swear is in my fiction.

BlackBlade · « **Reply #205 on:** January 28, 2011, 04:39:24 PM »

So there probably isn't an established rule for this, but just in case. When somebody on a forum or writing a paper for example creates a URL link in the text of a sentence, like this, is it proper to include punctuation marks in the code, or should they be on the outside and not coded, like this?

The Genuine · « **Reply #206 on:** January 28, 2011, 04:53:06 PM »

The latter.

Jonathon · « **Reply #207 on:** January 28, 2011, 06:41:00 PM »

I do the latter, but I don't think it really matters.

rivka · « **Reply #208 on:** January 30, 2011, 12:16:24 AM »

Quote from: Jonathon on January 28, 2011, 06:41:00 PM

I do the latter, but I don't think it really matters.

Agreed.

The Genuine · « **Reply #209 on:** January 30, 2011, 08:06:50 AM »

The legal writing style manuals are quite clear on this point, actually. Just imagine:

Quote

In the case of Galactic, LLC v. Saxon, Inc., it was alleged …

(or)

Quote

In the case of Galactic, LLC v. Saxon, Inc., it was alleged …

That second comma isn't part of the case name, so it shouldn't get the emphasis.

Jonathon · « **Reply #210 on:** January 30, 2011, 11:35:27 AM »

Style manuals can be quite clear on points that do not matter. And they often change their position on those points over the years. Chicago 14th ed. said you should style punctuation to match the preceding text. The 15th edition reversed that and said that punctuation should only match the styling of the text if it belonged to it.

BlackBlade · « **Reply #211 on:** June 06, 2011, 02:36:23 PM »

So sometimes I'll lay in bed and think about words, and wonder if Jonathon knows anything about this or that.

A few mornings ago I was think about the word vest. Now a vest is an article of clothing, and in fact the word vestments means clothing in general. A person who wears clothing associated with the opposite gender is a transvestite. But there there is also the verb to invest, or one's investments, which of course means something entirely different. Is there some point in history where clothing and financial holdings were more closely associated?

edit: Perhaps a time where buying clothing for others indicated that they now would serve your purposes?

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #212 on:** June 06, 2011, 05:37:51 PM »

The stripper divested herself of her assets.

Works for me!

Jonathon · « **Reply #213 on:** June 07, 2011, 12:28:10 PM »

I could've sworn that I talked about invest in the Random Etymology thread at some point, but I can't find it. Anyway, the etymology is a little confusing, not just because there's been a fair amount of semantic drift in English, but because the word invest has been borrowed from multiple sources; originally it came from Latin and meant "to clothe" and later took on more figurative senses like "to clothe with attributes" and "to establish in an office". The financial sense probably came from Italian, as Etymonline says: "The meaning 'use money to produce profit' first attested 1610s in connection with the East Indies trade, and is probably a borrowing of It[alian]. investire (13c.) from the same L[atin]. root, via the notion of giving one's capital a new form".

BlackBlade · « **Reply #214 on:** June 07, 2011, 01:01:19 PM »

Interesting, I'd thought about that possible connection, but I wasn't certain about it. Thanks Jonothan. I hope you don't mind my asking this stuff, I suppose I could just go to the websites you go to, but I kinda like having you explain it.

Jonathon · « **Reply #215 on:** June 07, 2011, 01:30:09 PM »

Quote from: BlackBlade on June 07, 2011, 01:01:19 PM

I hope you don't mind my asking this stuff. . . .

Not at all! I love this kind of thing.

Icarus · « **Reply #216 on:** June 09, 2011, 09:51:12 PM »

So I just stumbled across a line in my MS and had a 1 AM moment of doubt.

When "springing" as in paying for something that is a borderline luxury, should it be "they sprung for a" or "they sprang for a"?

Googlage suggests the latter.

Jonathon · « **Reply #217 on:** June 09, 2011, 10:02:00 PM »

I think this is an area where usage is shifting. The traditional conjugation is that sprang is the simple past while sprung is the past participle, but sprung is encroaching on sprang. I'd stick with sprang to be safe.

Icarus · « **Reply #218 on:** June 09, 2011, 10:03:42 PM »

Thanks

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #219 on:** July 03, 2011, 07:28:07 AM »

Why does "assorted" have two "s's" in it?

Jonathon · « **Reply #220 on:** July 03, 2011, 10:03:31 AM »

It's from the French à + sort. In French a single letter s between vowels is voiced, but this one should be voiceless as it is in the root word, so they wrote it with two s's.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #221 on:** July 03, 2011, 10:20:54 AM »

Aren't the French the ones who messed up the spelling of "colonel"? Not for nothing, the French have really messed up spelling.

Jonathon · « **Reply #222 on:** July 03, 2011, 10:28:45 AM »

Nope, that was the English. It was respelled to better reflect its Italian etymology.

And I'd have to say that French spelling is more consistent and systematic than English spelling.

BlackBlade · « **Reply #223 on:** July 22, 2011, 02:50:20 PM »

For a forum thread title, is it bad grammar to capitalize the first letters like you would a book title? I noticed that many posters, such as myself capitalize, (with the exception of the journalist thread I just created because that was when I noticed it) but that you don't Jonathon. Is there an established rule on this point?

Porter · « **Reply #224 on:** July 22, 2011, 05:46:23 PM »

Why would there need to be an established rule?

And if somebody has tried to establish one, they can stick it in their ear!