Random moments of reflection provoked by proofreading
- About twenty years ago, one of my professors at the University of Chicago, Elaine Hadley, commented on my perhaps somewhat excessive fondness for the semi-colon. Apparently, I am still perhaps somewhat excessively fond of the semi-colon. It is quite possible that I have semi-colons lying in wait next to my desk, giggling madly to themselves, waiting for yet another opportunity to sneak in between independent clauses.
- And hyphens, always lurking around the next corner.
- Clearly, my next two cats will have to be named Semi-Colon and Hyphen.
- At least I managed to tame (pretty well) my usual habit of (over)indulging in (rampant) parentheticals.
- It does seem to me that a book should not be identified with two different initial publication dates. In the same chapter, no less. How on earth did I do that?
- Um, where did the page #s for those citations go? I did supply them, right? *checks original files* Yes, I did. *supplies them again*
- I dearly hope this argument makes sense, because I've read it so many times that I no longer know.
- *sigh* The copyeditor desnarked my prose over here. Ah, well. (Is "desnarked" a word? Desnarkification? Disensnarkified?)
- But the terrible pun remains intact. Hooray!
- After over a decade of blogging, I have ceased to write in Englishese. This strikes me as a good argument for the practical use of blogging.