A lovely Monday morning here in the Philippines. I’ve got the Hash to attend to soon so I wanted to throw some love out to my faithful few readers who look forward to my pathetic posts. I won’t let you down!
Let’s start with this:
Some protesters who stayed in the District after the March on Washington ended Friday afternoon continued to spread their message, and elements of mayhem, around the city by temporarily shutting down major roads and tussling with police, even while rain deluged the area at nightfall.
Kevin Kim, do you see a problem in the above passage from a recent Washington Post article? Althouse did. As the world’s foremost authority on comma usage, I’ll let you be the final arbiter on the issue.
And speaking of Kevin Kim, today is his birthday. Any of y’all who appreciate his insightful comments here as much as I do should go give him a holler at his Hairy Chasms blog. And if you aren’t reading him every day as I do, you are missing out on some fine content. Check him out!
I ventured out yesterday afternoon in defiance of the Sunday lockdown order. Made it to my favorite beachside bar without incident and enjoyed me some cold brewskies. Now, I had plenty of beer at the house but I just enjoy watching the beauty that mother nature provides. Especially the sea gals.
Tomorrow is grocery shopping day, and I’ve got my list prepared:
Sadly, I don’t have a wife to do the shopping for me. Kinda like this poor guy:
Okay, that’s all I’ve got for today. Assuming I survive today’s trail (Leech My Nuggets is the Hare) I’ll be back with more tomorrow.
Regarding that final meme about the dead wife: strangely enough, I originally saw that joke in French. I’m guessing it originated in the States and bounced over to France, where the culture is similar enough for such a joke to still be funny.
As for Althouse’s comma issue:
I’ll agree with Althouse that that first comma does trip you up, but you need to read on to see that the comma actually makes sense. Althouse insists on overlooking that that comma is the first in a pair of commas that, together, create a parenthetical expression. One respondent, Matt Sablan, said almost exactly what I was thinking:
I think the author thought it was being used in the way Purdue lists here: under reason 3 (3. Use a pair of commas in the middle of a sentence to set off clauses, phrases, and words that are not essential to the meaning of the sentence. Use one comma before to indicate the beginning of the pause and one at the end to indicate the end of the pause.)
The problem being that it is a pretty big sentence and should have been two. I would have re-written it like so (without changing the tone or wording):
“Some protesters continued to spread their message and mayhem by temporarily shutting down major roads and tussling with police after the March on Washington.”
That’s a great analysis. My only quibble is with his phrase “The problem being,” which is ungrammatical: it should be “The problem is.” (I got roundly corrected in college for starting a sentence with “Point being, …”)
Sablan has more to say farther down the thread; he self-identifies as a “professional editor.” This makes sense, given his erudite response. Alas, I think Althouse is going to stubbornly focus on the one comma that threw her rhythm off instead of viewing that comma as part of a pair. I’d agree with both Sablan and Althouse, though, that the sentence could stand some rewriting. Sablan’s suggested rewrite is quite good; I can’t top it.
Thanks for the several shout-outs!
I just realized something else:
“As the world’s foremost authority on comma usage, I’ll let you be the final arbiter on the issue.”
That’s a dangling modifier unless you’re intending to call yourself the world’s foremost authority on comma usage!
Um, no. I’m the world’s foremost authority on comma MISusage. I also apparently have a dangling modifier problem as well.
“Äs the world’s foremost authority on comma usage, you should be the final arbiter on the issue.” That fixes it, right? I did check the link and it turns out I know the author! What are the odds of that?
As for the Althouse issue, I agree with your analysis. I tend to use actual parentheses when making a parenthetical reference, but someone once said, maybe it was you, that commas are more appropriate for that purpose.
I’m amazed you delved into the comments section. You are a braver man than me. I don’t even leave comments there anymore.
“[As] the world’s foremost authority on comma usage, you should be the final arbiter on the issue.” That fixes it, right?
Yes, indeed!
As for the comments section: I don’t normally bother, but Sablan’s remarks made me curious. From what I saw, he was one of the more solid, educated commenters. And based on what I’ve read of Althouse when she writes on language, I get the impression that she fancies herself a grammarian, but she isn’t one. Dunning-Kruger.