ItsOnlyBob

Today's Unsolicited, Nonjudgmental, No-Nerd-Speak Grammar Lesson:  Punctuation and Parentheses It's simple: Whatever you put between parentheses, you should be able to remove and still have a complete sentence. That includes punctuation. The parenthetical matter itself need not be (although it can be) a complete sentence, if it is simply inserted into a sentence. (Standalone parenthetical matter, on the other hand, should be a complete sentence, with all appropriate punctuation contained within the parentheses.)  So: * This is a sentence (including parenthetical matter), properly punctuated. * This is a sentence, properly punctuated. (And this is a standalone parenthetical sentence, also properly punctuated.) * This is a sentence with parenthetical matter at the end (also properly punctuated). It's often when we put parenthetical material at the end of a sentence that we grow uncertain: Um ... the ending punctuation belongs ... um ... inside the par...

So I'm watching ESPN tonight and I see the Capital One commercial with Samuel Jackson. I've seen it before, and noted the rarity of a mainstream commercial using a phrase like " every damn day ." The first time I saw it, I even rewound it to be sure I heard right. Then I thought, hey, it's Samuel Jackson. Good for you — push that envelope!  But wait  ... this time  the ad is slightly different. This time he says the card delivers on its benefits "every single day." Really? Not as effective, to my ear. Certainly not Jacksonesque language. A quick google search reveals there was (shocker!) public backlash . Apparently some people's ears went up in flames when they heard the dreaded "d" word. They complained, so the company went with a blander version that could as easily have featured Beaver Cleaver.  Two commercials later, a couple of high-school girls at an arcade  check out a shy boy standing nearby, out of earshot. "Lewis ne...

I love reading other peoples' inciteful commentary referencing the unproper usage of language expecially if it centers around some of the things which also tend to bother myself when I am reading things which are written or things spoken by voice in a poor fashion. There are many writers and speakers, who only tend to utilize the weakest sentances and words; irregardless of the fact that they are just watering down the affect that there words have on the people that are reading that which they have written or hearing that which they say. A long time and well reknown critic of carless writing and talking, this has and always will bother me. I often wonder if the English language will ever survive in tack. The thing is, is that oftentimes these are educated individuals, they are someone who definately should not have any excuse of incriminating the mother tongue like they do and, yet there intercourse is literally sprinkled with the following, to name a few; bad punctua...