Press release I received today:
“Baking Contest Highlights 6th Annual National Punctuation Day, September 24
“National Punctuation Day stresses literacy for children and adults. Bake a cookie, cake, pastry, doughnut, or bread in the shape of a punctuation mark and become famous!
Newswriting does involve skills. The skills can be learned, and they get better with practice, but most people can’t just grab them out of the air.
After hearing about it on NPR last weekend, I’ve been wishing someone from the Dictionary of Regional English would come interview me. I’ve got some answers all ready for them.
The show made me think of my paternal grandmother, who was from South Dakota. She had a slew of great sayings (is “slew” a Northwest term, I wonder?), although I remember only three. Strange or unusual things were “odd as Dick’s hatband.” A chunky person was “beef to the heels.” Someone with a hurt leg or a quirky walk had “a hitch in their getalong.” I never knew if she said these things because she grew up in the Midwest, because her heritage was Irish, or because she got them from my German-Norwegian grandfather, but they were fun to hear all the same.
Good morning, boys and girls, men and women, and all of you who write words for others to read. Today’s lesson is on apostrophes and their proper placement in years.
