February 26, 2003

The abnormal recreation of ignoble

The abnormal recreation of ignoble minds

I didn't plan it this way, but today's posts lean severely toward the trivial. What are you gonna do?

To continue: Polly Toynbee writes:

There were few "Here, heres!" from the Labour benches yesterday as the prime minister spoke.

Unless I'm mistaken, I believe "hear, hear" is what Members of Parliament say when they're not saying "hoooo" or "mmm mmm hmmm rmmm." Not "here here." And certainly not "here, heres!" (Or maybe they're saying "ooh ooh Mr. Blair! Here! Here! Pick Me!" But I don't think so.) That aside, I believe the plural makes this sentence effectively unpunctuate-able. "Hear, hear!"s doesn't seem quite right; neither does "Hear, hears!" And do they, in fact, even say "hear, hear" anymore? Outside of pantomimes and comic operas, I mean? If you ask me, the whole sentence should have been scrapped.

If the Guardian would like enlist my services as an editor, or merely as a punctuation cop, I'd be happy to help. I can be reached hear.

Moving right along: an MP in Ottawa has just apologized for saying "Damn Americans... I hate those bastards." I could probably get a lot more worked up over this if I had the foggiest idea where Ottawa is.

Posted by Dr. Frank at February 26, 2003 07:17 PM | TrackBack