Or so, at least, it seems. I’m not in Biden territory quite yet, but I’m making strides in that direction. My memory seems to be fading faster than my eyesight, but I can’t get glasses for my brain. I have to do a mental checklist whenever I leave the house–phone, vapes, wallet, darts–or else I’ll invariably get halfway down the street and have an, “Oh, shit”, moment. I’m notorious for bad grammar and punctuation, but these days, even shit I know, I get wrong. I’m thinking, “their”, but my brain tells my fingers to type “there”. As many mistakes as you readers see published here, you would be surprised to see all that I catch when I proofread. And obviously, all that I miss. But what happened yesterday really left me shaking my head.
When I do my solo hikes, I carry my headphones with me so I can listen to music along the way. About 1K into my walk, I reached up to my collar to hit the on-switch. Except it wasn’t there. I removed the headphones from around my neck to see what the problem was, only to discover that I wasn’t wearing headphones. At least I didn’t try to plug the USB charger cable into my ears. Geez.
Even with my impaired mental functioning, I still managed to pull this off:
Sunday has become to my default day to visit Cheap Charlies bar. I baked the brownies as a treat for the brown knees who work there. I saw a customer help himself to one, which kind of irked me a little, but then I realized I was being a petty jerk. The beer was cold, the company was friendly, the chatter inane. A typical night at the bar.
That was then, this is now. And by now I mean it’s Hash Monday. I’d put the Hare’s in the “sane” category, although last time they did include a climb that required a rope. We’ll see what’s in store, and you’ll likely hear about it here (at least I got the hear/here right) tomorrow.
Thanks for dropping in!
That full-moon photo shows what I like to call a “unibutt”—a single grand, shapeless buttock hidden under Asian women’s clothing. Unibutts exist in droves here in Seoul, where only the very bravest are motivated to wear tight, crack-revealing clothing. Well-defined butts are hard to find. Not that I’m in any position to critique other people’s asses, of course; I have the greatest, blobbiest unibutt of them all.
Then there’s this:
I have to do a mental checklist whenever I leave the house–phone, vapes, wallet, darts–or else I’ll invariably get halfway down the street and have an, “Oh, shit”, moment. I’m notorious for bad grammar and punctuation, but these days, even shit I know, I get wrong. I’m thinking, “their”, but my brain tells my fingers to type “there”.
Gettin’ British with the punctuation again! Also: there’re a few unnecessary commas in the above snippet (three or four).
Damn, so my, “when in doubt, add a comma” strategy isn’t working?
You just don’t wanna read my comma series deeply, do you?
Kev, the “unibutt” I posted was seated. But even standing it’s still nothing like the lovelies in the link you shared. Thanks!
Yeah, the punctuation inside the quotation marks just bugs me for some reason. Maybe it’s my Scottish genes. I can understand the period inside, but a comma feels like it is altering the quote somehow. I’ll try to be a better American in the future, though.
I have read the comma series, but given my memory issues, I should probably do a refresher course. When you say “unnecessary commas,” does that mean it’s wrong or just unneeded? Here’s my rewrite:
I have to do a mental checklist whenever I leave the house–phone, vapes, wallet, darts–or else I’ll invariably get halfway down the street and have an “Oh, shit” moment. I’m notorious for bad grammar and punctuation, but these days, even shit I know I get wrong. I’m thinking, “their,” but my brain tells my fingers to type “there”.
Good rewrite, but tuck your period in for the final “there.”
Yeah, by “unnecessary,” I literally meant “not needed,” the implication being that the extra commas’ presence was incorrect.
A British criticism of US-style punctuation is that it’s less logical. In British thinking, quotation marks are there to convey content, while punctuation conveys tone. Tucking a period or question mark inside the quotes forces the quotes to conflate content and tone. To be honest, I actually agree with the Brits on this count: UK punctuation is more logical. But given the independent evolution of US and UK English, the rules are the rules. If you’re a Yank, and you’re not trying for a pretentious, over-affected, Anglophile delivery, stick to writing like a Yank and don’t be a linguistic Benedict Arnold.