Ok, something fun to share.... good friend James (aka jimbobb) was kind enough to help by pointing out some interesting errors in my last post, only proving my point about my own inability to use the English language correctly.
"Jennie, dear, love the blog... you should buy eats, shoots and leaves as a small reference book; it would help you avoid this sort of thing "A few of the things that have struck me thus far about New Zealand include: being the first country in the world to grant women’s suffrage, legalized (and regulated) prostitution and hermaphrodites in public office "...
(there is legalised prostitution in public office???????? semi-colons, dear, semi-colons!) looking forward to seeing you in march! x jimbobb"
Well, well, well...
FIRST of all: my mistake, it's actually a transexual in public office, not a hermaphrodite (AND she has recently moved on from that post). SECOND: and just to clear this up, THERE ARE NO PROSTITUTES IN PUBLIC OFFICE IN NZ... at least not to my knowledge. FINALLY: Sadly enough, dear jimbobb, I HAVE been reading "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" as bedtime reading for the past month, but apparently I fell asleep during the section on appropriate comma usage. How ironical.
Dear jimbobb: I suppose we are now equal for the night I spent in Thailand waiting up for you disasterizing about your stolen kidneys and corneas whilst you were asleep on the beach after the football match.
See you in March, Cambodia is it then? x J
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3 comments:
Glad to see you are still safe, and still curious why you'd leave when Bush did and we got this awesome guy in the White House.
Whatev. I read the post about the advice you got and thought I'd offer this, more for fun than for advice. (I guess because your writing is at once creative and journalistic.)
"Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college."
— Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (A Man Without a Country)
Yeah, the sentence he referred to technically was nonsensical, but I got it straight off.
And for (I hope) wind in your sails:
"There you go, mate. Keep as cool as you can. Face piles of trials with smiles. It riles them to believe that you perceive the web they weave. And keep on thinking free."
--The Moody Blues
Ah, the poor semicolon... I shall try to employ more dashes, commas and general descriptive words in the future. I guess at least people are reading.
Cheers for the good quotes.
Semi-colons are the wenches of the written word: I use them often, never proudly.
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