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#118900 01/05/04 07:30 PM
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Extract from review of surprising new bestseller on punctuation in today's NYTimes.

"Eats, Shoots & Leaves" has been sold with great fanfare to the United States, where it will be published by Gotham Books in April. Suddenly, people who once treated Ms. Truss like a nitpicking fussbudget are taking her seriously.

Complete review:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/05/books/05GRAM.html




#118901 01/05/04 07:33 PM
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Is this deja vu all over again?

Seems I remember complaining that if she were such a fussbudget the title would be Eats, Shoots, and Leaves.


#118902 01/05/04 08:04 PM
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If a book on punctuation can become a best seller, why not a book on "disfluencies"?

Here's a revealing tidbit:
drinking alcohol reduces ums
If true, it's probably because you can't hear the ums in the slurs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/03/arts/03TANK.html






#118903 01/05/04 08:08 PM
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You "um" to give yourself time to think. You don't think as much when you're drunk.


#118904 01/05/04 08:13 PM
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You don't think as much when you're drunk.

People who listen to drunks don't think much of them either.






#118905 01/05/04 08:19 PM
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Meanwhile, an aside: I wonder what our Oz friends think of the title? I learned the punchline not as part of a panda joke, but as part of a wombat joke. I'm afraid decorum prevents me from elaborating.


#118906 01/05/04 08:37 PM
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What is the world coming to?

The NYTimes review of a book about punctuation is the "most emailed" story in the past 24 hours, beating out "Rover Unfurls ... Exploring Mars", a relative ho-hum at #16.

Commas or cosmos? The people choose commas.

Are there any signs of intelligent life in this selection?




#118907 01/05/04 09:08 PM
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I wouldn't put too much stock in "how much a thing is e-mailed." I didn't e-mail anyone about Spirit because I figured they will hear about it, and surf Space.com if they're really interested.

Personally, I'm buying some 3-d glasses so I can see the panorama properly.

Cheers,
Bryan

You are only wretched and unworthy if you choose to be.


Cheers,
Bryan

You are only wretched and unworthy if you choose to be.
#118908 01/05/04 09:24 PM
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You are only wretched and unworthy if you choose to be

Reminds me of a quote I once read, I think from Dante.

The sense of it goes like this:

People live in despair with their eyes fixed on the ground while the stars wheel in the heavens above them.

Anyone have the actual quote?

Re: "drunks don't think as much"

P.S. Are drunks thinking less, or just thinking less about what they are thinking?
[in vino est veritas]




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in japan, corporate drinking parties are possible, because the japanese believe you can't believe any thing a drunk might say.. so any social faux pas (at a big social occation) is glossed over, (he was drunk) and is forgotten.

curious isn't it?


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