Back in the days when I edited Writing for Teens (may it RIP) magazine, we featured a regular column called “Grammar Slammer” which was written by my fabulous editor Debbie Nevins.
This one’s for you, Deb.
I just discovered a clever column in Slate’s blog Browbeat that I will regularly be following. Copy-Editing the Culture features grammar clunkers in the cultural limelight.
I was especially amused by The Rise and Fall of Woody Allen, as Experienced Through Punctuation
of his movie titles:
After the apprentice effort What’s New Pussycat? (missing, like the song it references, a direct-address comma), Allen redeemed himself and reached some measure of creative maturity with What’s Up, Tiger Lily?, a charming and, more to the point, brilliantly punctuated feature. From there, he was borne forward on a wave of good comma-ic energy. The year 1972 brought another direct-address victory in Play It Again, Sam, shortly followed by the creatively but rigorously punctuated Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex*/ *But Were Afraid To Ask. From there, the triumphs of Annie Hall, Manhattan, Hannah and Her Sisters, and Crimes and Misdemeanors, all beautifully and necessarily unpunctuated, seemed inevitable.
I love this stuff. Makes me feel a bit better when I walk down the street and want to copy-edit food cart signs.
Wait… Writing is dead?
Yes, sadly so. They buried its original form about three years ago, or so. It is now reincarnated as the end pages (8, I believe) of READ magazine.
Ah, I can barely contain myself when I am in stores or restaurants and see glaring errors of spelling, grammar or punctuation—which is ALL THE TIME. I should take to carrying a permanent marker and engaging in guerrilla copy editing.
Alas, Writing has died even more of a death, down to 2 to 4 pages in a reduced-page READ. In fact, it isn’t really Writing any more. I would love to reincarnate it in the digital realm. If I do, will you come back to us, Sandhya?