Originally Posted By: Porcupine
I am most definitely NOT a nicer guy than you, Dale, as I am not a guy at all.

And tsuwm (?), I'm afraid I'm not putting you on; I really do have a slight problem with possessives. In fact, I generally prefer to follow my own rules regarding punctuation. I especially like to use the three consecutive periods...though I think they are meant to imply that time has passed...I like their continuity and how they imply that there is something unknown or undefinable...and that they can make unrelated sentences seem related...and also to imply that the thought or concept lingers even after the sentence has ended...

And I love to use commas to construct ridiculously long run-on sentences, connecting one thought to another, without the finality of a period, as I have never been one to be sparing with words or succinct for that matter, and while brevity, if used in an intelligent manner, can be as persuasive as a long-winded sentence, it is just not my style.


HA! I know what you mean about the periods, Porcupine. I've got got watch myself with that all the time.

(Oh, and I was also thought to be a gent when I first joined, but when I realized this, it was just a matter of letting everybody know that I had protuberances, not dangly bits. It's the not-sexually-evident monikers we've adopted, I think.)

For the possisive bit, I found it easier to remember by keeping in mind that it's is really a contraction of "it is" just like don't is a contraction of do not.