(The song is titled "Nobody Does It Better," making it one of only six canonical Bond Themes not to share their film's title. Even more obscurely: of those six, it's the only one to contain the film's title elsewhere in the lyrics.)
Speaking of errors in previously edited/proofread books, a book I once edited was revised and given over to someone else for further proofreading, and when it was finally published, my name was spelled wrong in the Acknowledgments. Sigh.
Similar experience: I was in a book (a national study of excellence in law teaching, to go ahead and brag) and half of the mentions of my name spell it "Stephen."
The impulse to spell my name with a PH is perplexing. I mean, if one is talking to or about me, presumably one knows how to look up the way I spell my name. Because this particular book has* three co-authors, I'm guessing they divvied up the writing of it and someone got confused.
*Had? It is no longer being authored and the specific authoring error about which I'm complaining happened in the past; on the other hand, both the book and its co-authors still exist.
I think it will always be BC and AD. Otherwise, you’re just letting the Jews win. Again. On top of our space laser and world domination feats … whew, so much to interfere with, so little time.
Paradoxically, BCE and CE are most helpful for people working with early Christianity - as our best assessments suggest Jesus of Nazareth was born around 4 BCE or so. So saying he was born 4 BC would be even more confusing: Jesus Christ was born 4 years before Christ.
Why isn't it "The-Lord-Averse", with the added hypen after "The" to make clear that the entire set of words is operating as a single compound adjective?
You may, for further information about en dashes and how I wield them (and think they should be wielded), read my previous piece titled Only Connect II: The Heretic.
Wow. There's a plethora of related usages this column brought to mind.
I know, but have never noticed particularly, the dual meanings of "momentarily". I like having that pointed out. It reminds me of "presently", which I like to use in the sense of "soon" rather than "at present".
I never thought about what it would mean to live at a time when dates were linked to an event in the future that nobody (besides mystics and prophets) ever had anticipated. Maybe Merlin, living backwards, would have appreciated such a convention. Meanwhile, I always thought of my seventieth birthday, for instance, as celebrating the end of my seventieth year, as well as my seventh decade. I was always against calling 2000 the start of the new century, but as a computer person I well understood that such a nicety was irrelevant to the upcoming "Y2K" problem.
Bilingualism: I once got my phone's texting keyboard into UK English mode instead of US English. Every time I dictated a sentence and tried to end it with a period, I always got the word "period" spelled out. I figured out that "full stop" would do the job; further, that "full stop" also works with the US mode. I'm still not sure how to dictate the words "period" or "full stop" if I need to, but that's something for another day.
I'm not sure whether I've used "perforce" conversationally, but I have used "albeit". I take a small amount of pride in related event. Back 35-40 years ago I was in conversation with a radio linguist whose name I have forgotten (like Geoffrey Nunberg, but someone else whom I associate with New Hampshire public radio). I used the word "desultory" casually while we were talking, and he complimented me on my proper usage of that word.
Thank you for this marvelously dense and charming and information-filled response! For the sake of full confession, I had no idea that there was any other meaning to "momentarily" besides "in a moment or two" till a Brit friend (nicely, charmingly, pointedly) mocked me for using it thus—though she only called out my sin; she didn't explain the sin. I had to look it up.
1. I'm an atheist, but the BCE/CE thing (with or without periods) has always made me roll my eyes a bit. I mean, they both refer to the same split point, so why bother? (As you go on to say, a few grafs later, I now see.)
2. I'm interested that you support "momentarily" (also) meaning "in a moment." I still remember the first time I heard someone go off on a rant about "THIS ONLY MEANS *FOR* A MOMENT!!!1!" I can appreciate the desire for the distinction, but I also have this rule for myself: you don't get to criticize a usage "error" like this unless you can name the word that should be used instead. So ... Also starting to get to this point with "begs the question" and "decimate," at least in the sense that I'll tolerate others' "improper" usage, while I'll still not use these words in these senses myself.
3. On the "50th birthday" thing: my sister was a few months younger than her first husband. For a short while, she delighted in saying, "I'm married to someone in his fourth decade and I'm still in my twenties."
I was once told quite (by someone with strong feelings on the matter) that "i.e." has two periods and "eg." only one. I adopted the practice until I happened to look it up.
Thanks for clearing it up once and for all (for me, anyway)!
That's a bit baffling, more than a bit. I find myself wondering if somehow they were confusing e.g. with et al.? Not that that really explains anything, but it's the best I can do.
We also, then, to cross the t, have trade paperbacks, which are the larger fancier paperbacks, usually around 5 inches by 8, that are sold through trade outlets (bookstores), in comparison to the smaller mass market paperbacks that one used to see on spinner racks in drugstores and perhaps still do.
I had managed to gather over the years that some trade books were a different size, but I couldn’t fathom why so many book lists were concerned with trade books, which were, I thought from my after-school job in high school shelving books at the library, were plumbing and electrical manuals. Whew, run-on sentence. Thanks for the clarification, at any rate. Merry, merry!
I have a dedicated Carly playlist titled “Attitude Dancing.”
And thank you.
(The song is titled "Nobody Does It Better," making it one of only six canonical Bond Themes not to share their film's title. Even more obscurely: of those six, it's the only one to contain the film's title elsewhere in the lyrics.)
Speaking of errors in previously edited/proofread books, a book I once edited was revised and given over to someone else for further proofreading, and when it was finally published, my name was spelled wrong in the Acknowledgments. Sigh.
I'm hitting the like button on your comment only in preparation for myself commenting: Ugh. I'm sorry.
Better commenting that complimenting …
Similar experience: I was in a book (a national study of excellence in law teaching, to go ahead and brag) and half of the mentions of my name spell it "Stephen."
Well, that sucks. And not in the good way.
(It’s the “half” that especially galls.)
The impulse to spell my name with a PH is perplexing. I mean, if one is talking to or about me, presumably one knows how to look up the way I spell my name. Because this particular book has* three co-authors, I'm guessing they divvied up the writing of it and someone got confused.
*Had? It is no longer being authored and the specific authoring error about which I'm complaining happened in the past; on the other hand, both the book and its co-authors still exist.
I commend your strength of character in resisting the temptation to say, “we’re just inches from going metric.”
I only didn't say it because I didn't think of it. Because if I'd thought of it, I'd have said it. And now it's too late. Dammit.
Are We Dating: A foreword—I am already dated! In fact, at 74 am I not post-dated? Certainly my dating days are over.
BTW: The short cut for small caps in Word (at least on Windows machines) is CTRL-SHIFT K.
Oh, right, thank you. I used to know that, but it fell right out of my head.
And yet: Command rather than Control, no? At least on my Mac.
Windows machines do not have a Command key.
I think it will always be BC and AD. Otherwise, you’re just letting the Jews win. Again. On top of our space laser and world domination feats … whew, so much to interfere with, so little time.
Paradoxically, BCE and CE are most helpful for people working with early Christianity - as our best assessments suggest Jesus of Nazareth was born around 4 BCE or so. So saying he was born 4 BC would be even more confusing: Jesus Christ was born 4 years before Christ.
This is giving heavy “I can’t operate on this child; he is my son” vibes.
Or should I say: This is giving heavy "I can't operate on this child; he is the Son of Man" vibes.
Being born four years before birth—a miracle!
And then he was born again?
🫢
Jesus walks into a bar
Bartender: Sorry,pal, we don't serve people who predate their birth
Jesus walks into a bar...
I just love this column! For all our “wisdom” and bravado, we still have grammatical rules to observe—the muscular, yet fragile, world of words!
Why isn't it "The-Lord-Averse", with the added hypen after "The" to make clear that the entire set of words is operating as a single compound adjective?
You may, for further information about en dashes and how I wield them (and think they should be wielded), read my previous piece titled Only Connect II: The Heretic.
Thanks, and will do.
Wow. There's a plethora of related usages this column brought to mind.
I know, but have never noticed particularly, the dual meanings of "momentarily". I like having that pointed out. It reminds me of "presently", which I like to use in the sense of "soon" rather than "at present".
I never thought about what it would mean to live at a time when dates were linked to an event in the future that nobody (besides mystics and prophets) ever had anticipated. Maybe Merlin, living backwards, would have appreciated such a convention. Meanwhile, I always thought of my seventieth birthday, for instance, as celebrating the end of my seventieth year, as well as my seventh decade. I was always against calling 2000 the start of the new century, but as a computer person I well understood that such a nicety was irrelevant to the upcoming "Y2K" problem.
Bilingualism: I once got my phone's texting keyboard into UK English mode instead of US English. Every time I dictated a sentence and tried to end it with a period, I always got the word "period" spelled out. I figured out that "full stop" would do the job; further, that "full stop" also works with the US mode. I'm still not sure how to dictate the words "period" or "full stop" if I need to, but that's something for another day.
I'm not sure whether I've used "perforce" conversationally, but I have used "albeit". I take a small amount of pride in related event. Back 35-40 years ago I was in conversation with a radio linguist whose name I have forgotten (like Geoffrey Nunberg, but someone else whom I associate with New Hampshire public radio). I used the word "desultory" casually while we were talking, and he complimented me on my proper usage of that word.
Thank you for these essays.
Thank you for this marvelously dense and charming and information-filled response! For the sake of full confession, I had no idea that there was any other meaning to "momentarily" besides "in a moment or two" till a Brit friend (nicely, charmingly, pointedly) mocked me for using it thus—though she only called out my sin; she didn't explain the sin. I had to look it up.
And yes, I use "presently" only to mean "shortly." If I mean "now," I'm happy to say "now." Or, I guess, "at present."
1. I'm an atheist, but the BCE/CE thing (with or without periods) has always made me roll my eyes a bit. I mean, they both refer to the same split point, so why bother? (As you go on to say, a few grafs later, I now see.)
2. I'm interested that you support "momentarily" (also) meaning "in a moment." I still remember the first time I heard someone go off on a rant about "THIS ONLY MEANS *FOR* A MOMENT!!!1!" I can appreciate the desire for the distinction, but I also have this rule for myself: you don't get to criticize a usage "error" like this unless you can name the word that should be used instead. So ... Also starting to get to this point with "begs the question" and "decimate," at least in the sense that I'll tolerate others' "improper" usage, while I'll still not use these words in these senses myself.
3. On the "50th birthday" thing: my sister was a few months younger than her first husband. For a short while, she delighted in saying, "I'm married to someone in his fourth decade and I'm still in my twenties."
4. LOL @ "perforce"
I was once told quite (by someone with strong feelings on the matter) that "i.e." has two periods and "eg." only one. I adopted the practice until I happened to look it up.
Thanks for clearing it up once and for all (for me, anyway)!
That's a bit baffling, more than a bit. I find myself wondering if somehow they were confusing e.g. with et al.? Not that that really explains anything, but it's the best I can do.
I wish it was the most baffling thing I'd ever told by someone who was sure they were right...
Maybe they convinced themselves that eg. is short for "egzample"?
Marvelous. The parenthesis on “whom” and metric is delightful, but the footnote on “i.e.” is *chef’s kiss*
Marvelous. The parenthesis on “whom” and metric is delightful, but the footnote on “i.e.” is *chef’s kiss*
Wonderful piece. And many thanks for "pleonastic"!
It's pleo-tastic!
Thank you!
Thank you for identifying what "trade books" are. I have been puzzled for years. A mystery no more!
We also, then, to cross the t, have trade paperbacks, which are the larger fancier paperbacks, usually around 5 inches by 8, that are sold through trade outlets (bookstores), in comparison to the smaller mass market paperbacks that one used to see on spinner racks in drugstores and perhaps still do.
I had managed to gather over the years that some trade books were a different size, but I couldn’t fathom why so many book lists were concerned with trade books, which were, I thought from my after-school job in high school shelving books at the library, were plumbing and electrical manuals. Whew, run-on sentence. Thanks for the clarification, at any rate. Merry, merry!