Between You and Me --Confessions of a Comma Queen

"Die heiresses! Die heiresses!" I repeated over and over as I moved around the living room, applying polish to the dusty, mildew-pocked furniture.

An odd mantra for house-cleaning? You bet. But I'd just come across a surefire way to remember how to pronounce diaeresis--those two dots that The New Yorker and other staid publication put over the second o in cooperate. (I never do, preferring to live dangerously and also because it's a pain to do on the laptop.)  

In the course of my teaching, occasionally someone will ask about this usage and I've been guilty of calling this mark "those two little dots" or "an umlaut" (incorrect unless you're writing German.) So I am delighted to add this bit of knowledge to my fund of trivia.

Yes, I've been reading another book about grammar and usage. Mary Norris's delightful Between You and Me is part grammar book and part memoir, including Norris's thirty some years at The New Yorker, as well as an early stint as a foot checker at a public pool and later as a milkmanwoman.

From tips on pencils, erasers, and pencil sharpeners to a discussion of hyphens, en dashes, and em dashes--including the hyphen in the title Moby-Dick, to a consideration of proposed gender-neutral pronouns (I hate the use of they for someone of indeterminate gender--they is plural, dammit! but rather like a proposal to use ey, em, or eir) to a hilarious chapter ("F**K THIS SH*T) on the proliferation of profanity in modern prose, the book is a gem. 

I loved it. Especially recommended for my fellow word nerds.

There's an excellent review HERE.

What's Your Score?

Shamelessly stolen from Janet Reid who shamelessly stole it from someone else. I guess that makes us both thieve's.

But seriously, what a list! I have to wonder about the mind set of the person who compiled it. I have a real feeling we wouldn't get along. People who know they're right and that God is on their side are scary -- no matter what their religion is -- when they decide that they should act on that knowledge. As I see it, the fanatic who blows away an abortion doctor is pretty similar to the fanatics who crashed the jets into the Twin Towers -- except in the matter of numbers.

And what are P.K's anyway? Preacher's kids is what that means to me. Government recipients -- does that include Medicare? The use of public schools and roads? The U.S. mail?

Just call me a high fullutent loud mouth woman who fits into several other of these categories -- I think I'm up to eleven. But at least I'm not a sports nut.