It's been a while, I know. Here's my favorite language-related stuff from the past two (!) months:

World Wide Words - Apostrophes
An introduction to the more controversial uses of the apostrophe. Related: Western civilization has finally produced the apostrophe-grocer's apostrophe.

Watch Yer Language
The blog of the copy desk chief at the Billings Gazette. Topics so far have included AP style for baseball terms, compound modifiers and hyphens, and how to handle semantic change. I found this blog via an Editor's Desk post on the importance of blogrolls.

Futility Closet - Got That?
A poem showcasing the stacking abilities of "that." A must-read for fans of the buffalo sentence. (I'll admit to difficulty parsing the second-to-last line. Is it one short?)

You Don't Say - 'All ways are my ways'
John McIntyre advises copy editors to exercise some principled restraint.

Regret the Error - Stumped by modern usage?
Reader gets huffy about racist legacy of stump speech, Reuters editor replies with some much-deserved sassback.

Ghost Auteur - How to Properly Use the Semicolon
This blog only has four posts so far, but do I like being able to link to a comprehensive explanation of the semicolon that isn't on an ugly-ugly page? Yes, yes I do.

The Boston Globe - What's wrong with this question?
"When you declare a word unnecessary, its very existence refutes you." The article is old, but I like that sentiment. And Mr. Verb informs me that this is the first instance of the word peeve-ology.

Labels: links