Comments on: QE2 4 JW

By: John Isbell

John Isbell — Wed, 10 Dec 2003 00:45:58 +0000

I OTOH am extremely fond of the England rugby team. They beat the crap out of Australia. Tasty.

By: SqueakyRat

SqueakyRat — Tue, 09 Dec 2003 08:14:23 +0000

Brian—you, nauseous? Never! Nauseated, perhaps, but even in extremis, never nauseous.

By: sue

sue — Tue, 09 Dec 2003 01:02:06 +0000

Tripp: if the lure of more photos emailed on a regular basis doesn’t get your mom online, try setting her up with video-internet-phone conferencing. Chat requires typing, and in effect learning slang, and newbies hate both of those. But all my son’s grandparents have become real devotees of those frequent adorable photos. (video is the holiday present.)

By: Danny

Danny — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 22:14:45 +0000

For another take on the punctuation question, see the footnote to this recent entry by Ben Bagley. My comment, towards the bottom, echoes Brian’s recognition of the trade-off but takes the opposite position.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 21:48:32 +0000

No, it’s definitely still nauseous-making.

By: Tripp

Tripp — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 21:14:24 +0000

If the Queen of England can text message, then by golly why can’t I get my dear Mother to email and chat? I told the best way to keep in touch with the grandkids is to chat, but she’ll have none of it.

By: David Mackinder

David Mackinder — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 20:41:15 +0000

alternatively, the punctuation could be to have the full stop, then the closing single inverted comma, then the closing double inverted comma: that way, a single full stop does threefold duty—for Harry, for Dawson and for the reporter. Anyhow, whatever the rights and wrongs of the punctuation, the story’s a good one.

By: Thlayli

Thlayli — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 19:19:27 +0000

Nice to see that HM is up-to-date with the technology. Probably the only way she can get the grandkids to talk to her….

By: Brian Weatherson

Brian Weatherson — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 19:11:09 +0000

Right – unless Harry said something like “she wants to give you a party when you get back.”. I agree those strings look awkward, but the punctuation there could, in principle, so there’s a trade-off between aesthetics and expressive power. I favour more expressive power here, but that could just be me.

By: Kai von Fintel

Kai von Fintel — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 18:21:26 +0000

Actually, wouldn’t there be two more full stops in a logical representation? Since Henry uttered a complete sentence, it should have its own full stop. Then comes Dawson’s full stop. And then the reporter’s full stop. So, we would have: … she wants to give you a party.’.”. Maybe, the rules of punctuation that make that sequence a little shorter do make some sort of sense. :)