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Archive for September, 2016

Embracing @MittRomney as pigs fly by

Posted in Politics, tagged , , , , on September 27, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Dear Mitt Romney,

It’s apparently sweater weather in hell, as I have suddenly developed a bit of affection for you. In fact, I retweeted you last night.

screen-shot-2016-09-27-at-3-07-22-pm

And I don’t even think it was just debate delirium.

I wasn’t a huge fan of yours back in 2012. At the time, I thought of you as a used-car-style smarmy salesman peddling elitism (evidenced succinctly by that 47 percent comment).

Time and Trump have a way of changing minds.

You are like an ill-fitting prom dress that suddenly doesn’t seem so bad. “Maybe I can take it in here … and here … and dye it … “

Here’s a roundup from Forbes on Nov. 7, 2012, of why you lost that election. Nothing has changed since 2016 except Trump made it OK to be loud and proud about being racist (and misogynistic and xenophobic).

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You clearly don’t like the GOP’s 2016 nominee. Isn’t there something you can do from the inside to bring the party back to its original values? Remember that the party of Lincoln touted “Free Speech. Free Press. Free Soil. Free Men.” (1856) and equal rights for all. Poppy Bush and supporters wanted a “Kinder, Gentler Nation” (1988).

I do too.

Awash in nostalgia (and ice skating on the River Styx),
Beth

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A post about strippers, a penis and pee (guaranteed clickbait!)

Posted in Grammar, etc., tagged , , , , , on September 23, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Dear readers (and, I hope, fellow lovers of language):

I need a break from the 2016 election.

Let’s talk about the serial comma (also called the Oxford comma) for a moment. We’ve all seen the following to advocate for its use:
why-use-the-serial-comma

But here’s the thing: I would use a colon to clarify if I really meant that JFK and Stalin had side jobs. My sentence would read:

We invited the strippers: JFK and Stalin.

If I meant that JFK, Stalin and some ladies working their way through college were all coming to the party, I would write:

We invited JFK, Stalin and the strippers.

I’m a fan of improving clarity by rewriting. No need to overwork the comma and use it for a simple series.

However, we cannot give the comma a gold watch and say goodbye. We still need it. And some people certainly appreciate it. (Read this from the bottom up.)

Email courtesy of 36-hour Tina

Email courtesy of 36-hour Tina

 

We also need articles or bad things happen.

 

Image courtesy of Shane Marshall Brown

Image courtesy of Shane Marshall Brown

A “the” before “pen” would have made all the difference. (Or even a bigger space before “is.”)

What we don’t need is random quotation marks — not even one random quotation mark, as seen in the photo below. (By the way, quotation marks come in pairs. That’s how they work. But if the signmaker had added another, we’d be wondering what the dogs are actually doing.)

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Image courtesy of Angela DeVore

Please send me your sign/email/meme fails in the comments or via Twitter (@BethCon5). I think we all will be needing more election breaks over the next 45 days.

Love,
Beth

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No means no, Lady.

Posted in Politics, tagged , , , , on September 21, 2016| Leave a Comment »

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Dear Ms. K.,

I received this email from you at 1:12 a.m. today. Have we met? Your name does not sound familiar. A quick search of Facebook revealed your account. We are not friends, so I’m not sure why I am on your mailing list.

I don’t want to keep you hanging on the edge of your seat waiting for my reply, so here it is:

No.

And not only no, but hell no.

While I was on your FB page seeing if we had any friends in common, I found this:

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And this:

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And, DEAR GOD, this:

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It’s clear we are not on the same page about how to make “Amarica” great again. (“Again” implies there was a time when we were better than we are now. When exactly was that? Based on the information you posted publicly, I’m guessing you believe it is when slavery was A-OK.)

This is a “no trainer” for me.

You stay in your basket, and I’ll stay in mine.

Most sincerely,
Beth

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