Writer & Editor
I have recently been informed that the period is dead. RIP, period. We hardly knew ye. Actually, we knew ye for a good long time, but you are as obsolete as rotary telephones and dial-up modems now. Even The Washington Post says so. The younger generation shuns you. You have been demoted to a mereContinue reading “Punctuation Menopause”
I heard a coworker this morning use “irregardless” in a sentence. As in, “it’ll happen irregardless of the situation.” This made me cringe inside. Irregardless ain’t a word…and this was the third time in two days I’d heard it used. Come on, people! After all, like Bush and Cheney, it’s a double negative. The prefix (“ir-“) andContinue reading “Irregardless Ain’t a Word*”
Maybe I’m naive, but I have no idea how to type those two little dots over the word naive. Nor do I know what they’re called or why they’re there. naïve Fortunately, I’m a pro at cutting and pasting. Normally, there’s just one dot over the letter i. This is called a tittle. Adding a second dot turns theContinue reading “The Tittle Becomes an Umlaut”
Tara and I were recently in Sears shopping for a new washing machine. I couldn’t help but chuckle over the silliness of calling a machine that washes clothes a “washing machine.” The name’s much too literal. We don’t call a car a “driving machine” or a refrigerator a “keeping food cold machine.” And why isn’tContinue reading “Turning Verbs Into Nouns”
The good news? I don’t have to worry about freelance writing screwing around with my unemployment benefits. After checking into this with the Washington unemployment office, I learned the state simply deducts the difference from what I’m earning part-time from my weekly checks. In fact, there’s a rather complicated formula/chart wherein they take a percentageContinue reading “Running A Murraython”
Mark Petruska