for 27 March 2000. Updated every WEEKDAY.
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The Jawbone of a Scare Quote Thanks so much for your slight to the AP style guide. "Yet the term isn't mentioned in The New York Times' heavy-duty instruction manual, nor in The Washington Post Deskbook on Style; not in the slim volume the Associated Press puts out or The Chicago Manual of Style or any of the various MLA guides." Sincerely, Edith <ess@blkbox.com> Why do people force the blowy AP style guide on anyone, anyway? It's one of those mysteries, like why is the Associated Press a non-profit organization? Slotcar  One of the local businesses around here, Danny "D" TV Repair, had a sign in their window announcing that they were going on "vacation". I puzzled over that one for weeks. Take care, Scoats <scoats@greylodge.com> "Scoats" sounds like a contraction of "scare quotes." Is that why you're so interested in their deployment? As a responsible journalist, I contacted Danny "D" TV Repair. Danny (Senior) put "vacation" in quotes like that because he spent his time off sitting on his couch watching a Philco he repaired five years ago that the customer never came to pick up. Turns out the guy died. Now there's some ironical usage! Slotcar Oh boy, oh boy! I already found a word that needs scare quotes! In the first paragraph, you say: "They pat the phrase on the back and send it on it's way bundled up in scare quotes." Ooh, it's a trendy mis-usage of non-possessive "it's"! This is obviously an attempt to get closer to your readers by using layman's jargon, right? Egads. "Layman's jargon" sounds somehow very intimidating, & perhaps a bit naughty, though it's certainly not worthy of scare quotes. I did really enjoy the article, though. Have no doubts about that. It's just the militant grammatician in me that causes such reactions to occur while I sit here eating my "Grape-Nuts" & reading "Suck" naked. kate.rears.kittka <hkrear@wm.edu> At least one mystery has been solved here. Those signs at restaurants that advertise "Breakfast" Served All Day? Copy editing didn't catch the writer's mistake before they taped it to the wall. Your letter gets the award for most interesting batch of scare quoted words used to beat me over the head. With "layman's jargon" and "Suck" you wouldn't have placed. "Grape-Nuts" pushed you over. Especially since you claimed to be eating them naked. The facial contortions needed to chew those things + breakfast table nudity = most lasting image of the day. Thank you. Slotcar Subject: ethnic cleansing/genocide No, no...you have it all wrong: ethnic cleansing is NOT genocide. The point of genocide is to kill everyone in a given ethnic group. The point of ethnic cleansing is to clear a given ethnic group out of a given area: usually by forcibly evacuating them. Granted, shooting a few helps get the overall message accross to the others, but still they are different concepts. The reason ethnic cleansing survived as a coinage — beyond its appealingly sinister ring — is that it conveys something different from genocide. Francisco Toro <franciscotoro@hotmail.com> To my cauliflower ear that sounds a lot like a justification for ethnic cleansing. Since the use of the word genocide isn't reserved for instances where it's been successful — where every member of a group has been killed — well, then every member of a group doesn't have to have been killed for genocide to have been committed. It's about intent. Maybe ethnic cleansing is what genocidal maniacs use to describe genocide that they know won't succeed. Your definiton is pragmatic, just like in my example. The numbers just aren't there. The use of the term ethnic cleansing anesthetizes readers to the reality of genocide and makes it tolerable. Heavy, huh? Slotcar Speaking of letters from my grandmother, she always signed her cards: "Love," Nana Which always made me wonder about whether there was real sentiment behind the $5 bill she enclosed. Ted Metzler <metzlert@proxicom.com> These scare quotes stories are enough to break my cauliflower heart. I'm so sorry, Ted. It's sadly obvious that your grandmother didn't love you. But you're better off than me. My Aunt "Winnie" and my Uncle "Willie" only sent me a dollar bill every year. On the other hand, I was doing pretty good because I had no idea who the people behind those obvious pseudonyms were. It's like parents who sign the cards "Santa Claus" on the Christmas gifts they give to their kids. That's a red (and green) flag, kiddies, and an early lesson in why you shouldn't trust a scare quote. Slotcar Hey, what is a "ho-made" Donut? Donut made by "ho"s? Cameron Geiser <cameron@slip.net> See, you see what happens with scare quotes? People get all smart-mouthed because they can't resist questioning everything inside them. A (or is that an?) "ho-made" donut is not a donut made by hos, funnyman. A "ho-made" donut is a donut made by ex-hos who've been forced to get "real" jobs under new welfare strictures. I suppose it's easy to denigrate their Krispy Kreme efforts. In the future, resist the impulse. Slotcar Should I write in a vote for Suck.com? The self-important ("esteemed") Webby Awards judges left Suck off the nominees list this year. In lieu of vengeful, time-consuming DNS attacks, and in the spirit of the merchandise-fueled grassroots campaign, I've decided to just write in "Suck.com" to win an award. Apparently, this is a popular notion because the Webby site told me I wasn't the first. I don't expect any Suck.com-branded items in return for this miniscule gesture, but I'm sure your legion(s) of fans would appreciate your preference as far as categories go --"Print & Zines" or "Humor." You've been nominated before in both, so the Webby people can't figure it out either. John Teti <johnteti@kear.tdsnet.com> Thanks for your support, John. Real stickers with sticky backs are headed your way even as we speak. Suck fully endorses all efforts to disrupt the orderly functioning of the Webby Awards. We have endorsed such efforts in past years and will continue to do so until such time as Suck is awarded first prizes in the Webbys' Fashion, Living and Sports categories. But let's keep something in mind. Suck has been unfairly ignored over the years. But Lori Berenson has been held without trial in a Peruvian prison for more than four years. Ms. Berenson's continued incarceration is a rebuke to all people who treasure liberty and honor due process of law. Therefore, we urge all our readers to put aside Suck's concerns for a moment and write www.freelori.org into the Webbys' "Humor" category — and any other Webby categories which you see fit. Thanks for listening, and let's free Lori Berenson. Sucksters Hit & Run You people rock. I've been telling my witless, Protestant, Jewish and Hindu friends that they don't seem to understand how significant the statement by the Pope is but they've just responded with crying, whining or some kind of crazy, Hindustani chant to their pagan gods. This is, of course, better than the response from the Agnostics, which is a blank stare, or that from the Atheists, which is some kind of angry, inchorent muttering about irrelevance and some word that sounds a little too much like moronosity. So, by posting on Suck that its the act and not the action, you've managed to cement Catholic theological dominance at one telecommunications start-up. Thank you, God bless you and realize we're knocking off a couple years in purgatory for this. Elijah Meeks <ElijahM@AdicomWireless.com> Would you mind not telling everybody our game plan, Elijah? The last guy to try cementing Catholic theological dominance in America was JFK Sr., and look what happened to him. Sucksters Code This Book dear boob, the "Code This Book" article was great; i wonder if "BOOK READERS"(ha) will even give a damn when they discover that the 'urban tour-de-force' novel they just read was written by TRASHY, the cognizant TRS-80 computer... signed, a boob fan I often wonder that myself. But what they don't know, won't hurt them. TRASHY will keep on keeping it real until Tandy discontinues his power supply, or until his poetry slam vs. the Commodore PET is made public. Let's hope neither happens soon. yours, The Boob |
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