Publisher's Round-up

Nathan Bierma hits the streets (again)

2009-11-11T14:29:00.000-08:00

Neal Whitman has weighed in on Nathan Bierma's new collection of material culled from the "On Language" column of the Chicago Tribune. Yes, the column is no longer a regular feature in the paper, but Neal points out that like the great DVD box set, The Eclectic Encyclopedia of English lets the series live on.

Neal takes exception with the logic of calling the book an "encyclopedia" and the alphabetical arrangement, but such is the challenge of the anthologizing such material. There is no perfect configuration; every solution has built-in compromises. In the end, Neal does come through with an understanding of what the book really does: "It’s fast, easy, entertaining reading, and would be a good gift for people who like reading about language . . . not so much a reference book as a language lover’s bathroom reader."

But Neal, "encyclopedia" sounds so much loftier than "bathroom reader"; we couldn't resist.

The Revolutionary Paul Brians-

2009-10-21T09:14:00.000-07:00

I had a chance to Interview Paul Brians on camera for Writer's Dojo at Wordstock a few days ago, but here's the real deal from an actual professional: Paul Brians is interviewed by Elizabeth O'Brien of English Grammar Revolution. The video is not yet available, so this will have to do in the meantime.

William Safire Remembered, but Best Remembranced Elsewhere

2009-09-30T09:55:00.000-07:00

Ben Zimmer, contributor to Language Log and to Far from the Madding Gerund (and occasional sub at the NYT "On Language" desk), writes two remembrances of William Safire and points to a column where the late, great gray eminence references the work of Language Log in defining the phenomenon known as "snowclones," a term actually coined by Glen Whitman rather than a staffer at Language Log.

Look everywhere else for remembrances of Safire (I'll ignore much of his political opinion except as it relates to civil liberties and media conglomeration), and also look around for discussions of what a snowclone is. As far as I know, Safire never plugged that other phenomenon noted and popularized at Language Log, the eggcorn.

As far as I know, Safire never gave mention to Paul Brians' Common Errors in English Usage, which would have seemed a natural for him, but once upon a time he did give mention to Brad Hansen's Dictionary of Computing and Digital Media, published by our own selves. To him the book was "catnip for netties."

A Midsummer Hint

2009-08-03T15:50:00.000-07:00

I hate to bring up school at a time like this, but it looks like the Parenting Press E-zine is dropping a back-to-school hint: Get those kids in the Common Errors in English Web site habit, or perhaps a get a copy for the backpack.

Someone is Wrong on the Internet AGAIN--and this time it's ERIC BOEHLERT!

2009-06-11T11:12:00.000-07:00

Here's a great one: Glenn Greenwald talks to Erich Boehlert about Eric's new book, Bloggers on the Bus: How the Internet Changed Politics and the Press. Boehlert has, for about the million-zillionth time, his finger on the pulse, and I'm sure to be taking a look at this book. His Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush is about as close to a tearjerker as any extremely detailed account of press coverage can be.

But! Right there in the middle of the conversation, Boehlert claims that until a couple of weeks ago, the Washington Post had never written a feature on a liberal blogger. Now, I would normally trust Eric to have it right, but in this case I've got to say it: Eric, Eric, Eric . . . where were you in the summer of 2005? How did you miss our own Barbara O'Brien, the Mahablogist and author of our own Blogging America: Political Discourse in a Digital Nation, right there on the cover of the Washington Post Magazine of July 17, 2005, in a feature written by David von Drehle? By my count, that means the Post actually featured a liberal blogger about four years ago.

Oh well, I assume we can trust Glenn Greenwald, anyway, when he signs off saying, "Well, Eric, you've written obviously one of the first books, and I think one of the best books on what political blogs are and what they do." Except Eric's book comes out five years after Barbara's (and Dan Gillmor's, for that matter). Perhaps, though, Glenn's half right. I certainly wouldn't put it past Mr. Boehlert to write one of the best books on just about anything.

UPDATE: You can find the comic featured here, and lots and lots of other good ones, at XKCD.

How blogging ended the newspaper industry

2009-04-15T09:52:00.000-07:00

Or not, as explained perfectly by Allison Hantschel.

Also on this topic, please refer to John Nichols and Robert McChesney, two of this country's greatest media know-it-alls.

Linda Sawaya Live

2009-02-27T10:44:00.001-08:00

Locals will want to note two great events coming up with Linda Sawaya, TV star and author of Alice's Kitchen:

1. Wednesday, March 4, from 4 to 7 pm at

Bale's Thriftway 12675 NW Cornell Road, Portland

A Lebanese cooking demonstration will focus on vegetarian

recipes for Lent.

2. Lebanese cooking demo at the Better Living Show at the Expo Center at the end of March, at the NW Natural Cooking stage . . . more details to follow.

Linda in person is every bit as wonderful as her cookbook, and both of these events will undoubtedly satisfy the soul as well as the palate.

Blogs make it to print, but not finally

2009-01-23T09:12:00.000-08:00

In late 2003, I contacted Barbara O'Brien about an idea I'd had percolating for some time--an idea that Sarah Boxer would call "dreadful " (and David Kamp would disagree)--to assemble blog postings, specifically political blog postings, into a book. Barbara's book Blogging America (July 2004) was one of the first anthologies of blogs in print (the first is credited to Tony Pierce's Blook of 2002), to which which Barbara generously added much original material and commentary. Back then, I called it "editing the internet," and I perceived this as the Next Big Thing in publishing.

It did not (and still does not) make sense to me that there is naturally one world of content available on the web sitting beside another world of content available in print. Six years ago the overlap was fairly limited, though, and so the growth potential seemed enormous. Some months later, in May 2005, my own collection--call it my homage to Donald Rumsfeld--was published. In the crucial nine months between these two books, blogs had hit a tipping point, and the day that Untidy: The Blogs on Rumsfeld was published was also the day that The Huffington Post went online, and there was no looking back--bloggers had big-time readership in an instant. Other web-based news sites with original content inevitably took hold.

With blogs now firmly in American (and the World) psyche, an idea brought up by John Emerson in September 2006 will come to pass, and blogs will have their own national tabloid, The Printed Blog, as highlighted in this NYT article. Next Tuesday (1/27/09) will be a new day in bringing blog posts to print. Of course, I approve.

More on Obama's inaugural address

2009-01-21T10:36:00.000-08:00

Listening to Mark Liberman's discussion on The World, I was struck by his declaration that Obama's "Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America," saying that it may become a historical moment of speechifying if, indeed, America does pick itself up, dust itself off, and begin the work of remaking itself.

Geoff Nunberg at Language Log singles out this phrase as a source of inspiration and an allusion to Jerome Kern's great tune, sung by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in Swingtime. You can click on the link to his post to see Fred and Ginger do it in the movie. That version remains the standard, naturally, but here's another good one by Diana Krall:

But what are we picking ourselves up from? If Obama continues to hark back to classic Americana in his speeches, perhaps we can start to forget moments like these from the president who preceded him:

Maybe there is hope after all.

Mark Liberman saves The World!

2009-01-20T22:44:00.000-08:00

Well, he didn't actually save it--it was a pretty good show anyway, but there was Mark Liberman on The World discussing Barack Obama's inauguration speech. Everyone knows Mark Liberman is co-author of our own Far from the Madding Gerund and co-founder of Language Log, but did you know Barack Obama is the current president of the United States? It's true.

You'll be hearing more about Barack Obama in the months and years to come, now that he's the president and all. For now you can listen to Mark Liberman on BBC's The World here. And those on the go can download it here.

Paul Brians with Lionel

2008-12-18T13:07:00.000-08:00

Paul Brians talked about his Web site and the new edition of Common Errors in English Usage on The Lionel Show this morning. It is here that we learn the irrepressible Lionel's opinion of "irregardless" and his (surprise!) distaste for George Bush's pronunciation of the word "nuclear":

Barbara and Her Garden

2008-12-18T13:01:00.000-08:00

Here's something to beat back any winter blues you may be feeling. Barbara Blossom Ashmun discusses her book, Married to My Garden, and her remarkable garden in this video clip from Garden Time:

More Holiday Shopping Possibilities

2008-12-09T11:47:00.003-08:00

The 2009 Common Errors in English Usage Daily Boxed Calendar has been sold at a lower price this year than in years past, just $11.95. But this good deal just got better for the holidays. We're now offering the calendar at a 5% discount for orders of 5-9, and 10% discount for orders of 10 or more on our calendar page.

Plus, unlike some online retailers, we are able to promise delivery by Christmas day for orders placed in a timely manner (but I remember that last year's edition sold out early, so you may want to time your purchase accordingly). I'm just not sure there's a better idea or a better deal for your holiday gift-giving out there anywhere. Is there?

Limits of Language: Raising the bar in Amazonian praise

2008-12-09T11:30:00.000-08:00

Sure it's bad form for publishers to point to the Amazon reviews for their titles (and besides, what happens, after all, when negative reviews sit next to the positive reviews the publisher is trying to highlight?). And anyway, Amazon claims all rights to those reviews, anyway. So I can't really just reprint what Amazon reviewer David M. Giltinan has to say about Mikael Parkvall's Limits of Language, but perhaps just this snippet would qualify as "fair use":

There are still three shopping weeks until Christmas. Nobody else has reviewed this book. So - if you know anyone with an interest in words or language - buy them a copy. Their puppy-like gratitude will last all year.

OK, then, shoppers--have at it.

Portland Monthly features Wordstock Short Fiction 2008 competition winner "Calendar Girl Arrested, Freed"

2008-12-09T10:31:00.000-08:00

Kurt Rheinheimer's 2008 Wordstock Short Fiction Competition–winning story, "Calendar Girl Arrested, Freed" appears in the December issue of Portland Monthly.

But it's comma, comma, comma, comma, comma chameleon over there at Portland Monthly, which features three variations on punctuating the title. We have the online version:

Calendar Girl, Arrested. Freed [comma following "Girl"; period after "Arrested"]

Then there is the title as it appears in the print version:

Calendar Girl, Arrested, Freed [comma following "Girl" and another comma after "Arrested"]

Finally, there is the title as it appears on the contents page of the print version:

Calendar Girl Arrested, Freed [comma following "Arrested"]

So which, if any of these, is correct? That would be the punctuation you find on the contents page of the print version: "Calendar Girl Arrested, Freed" (with the online version being, perhaps, the greatest violator of original intent):

But look at me, getting all hung up over some silly commas and a period. This story is so good it doesn't matter how you punctuate the title, and how many stories out there can make that claim? I could actually apply some simplistic literary analysis to justify each of these variations, and thereby reveal some hitherto-unsuspected genius to some carefully crafted editorial decisions, but Kurt would undoubtedly step in and tell me to just stop it, and stop it now.

To which I say, "OK, I, will, stop, it, now."

Mr. Hat's Review

2008-11-17T16:13:00.000-08:00

The wonderful and charming Mr. Hat, proprietor of Languagehat and co-author of Uglier Than a Monkey's Armpit, has weighed in with his (positive) assessment of Limits of Language. From his comments:

Geoff Pullum wrote about the U.K. edition a couple of years ago, calling it "the ideal birthday present for the linguist in your life who you feel already has everything." It would also, of course, be the ideal Christmas present for anyone who loves language and prefers facts to fancy.

And, since Limits of Language is a US edition of a UK publication, this brings up an obvious question: When will we see the US edition of Monkey's Armpit? Huh? When?

In the meantime, you can listen to the wonderful and charming Mr. Hat in conversation with PRI's Lisa Mullins on The World.

Colorless green ideas do not sleep furiously—or do they?

2008-11-12T15:40:00.000-08:00

Noam Chomsky’s most famous sentence is also one of the strangest ever constructed: “Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.” His point, in contrasting the syntax of this sentence with a variation, “Furiously sleep ideas green colorless,” was that while the former is grammatical and the latter is not, the latter is no less probable to appear in English language than the former.

Because he asserted his point so audaciously—claiming that no statistical model for grammaticalness would show otherwise—he left himself open to Fernando Pereira’s 2000 report on his own analysis. It turned out that a simple statistical model showed the grammatical version to be 200,000 times more likely to appear than the ungrammatical version.

All of this was described by Mark Liberman in a Language Log post which was reprinted in Far from the Madding Gerund.

So it seems Mr. Chomsky was wrong in that particular assertion, but then along came Mikael Parkvall to seal the deal, showing us once and for all that colorless green ideas do, in fact, sleep furiously. His illustration serves as the punch line for this post:

This illustration appeared on the back cover of the original UK edition of Limits of Language, but for some reason was dropped for the US edition. Since I was involved in the decision, I ought to be able to explain, but for some reason I cannot. Take another look at that beautiful rendition and tell me I’m not crazy.

And the winner(s) is/are . . .

2008-11-10T11:45:00.000-08:00

I see that the winners of the Wordstock 10 Short Fiction competition are not posted at the Wordstock page, so I’ll put them here for those you googling “Wordstock 10 winners,” or the like. Let’s run them down in the order they appear in The Wordstock Ten: Finalists from the 2008 Wordstock Short Fiction Competition, which is now available for purchase online (all entrants can look for their complimentary copy in the mail in the coming weeks):

First Prize Winner: Kurt Rheinheimer for “Calendar Girl Arrested, Freed”

An odd and oddly-told tale of a young women, one Bimini Padgett, who inexplicably lives at a shopping mall, where she works at a calendar kiosk. It’s all told as a newspaper report, but the reporter can’t ever get objective enough to stand outside the situation and just tell the story. What is this thing, anyway? Is this a parody of newspaper writing? Is it social commentary on our consumer culture? Is it just a prolonged and carefully construed joke? Or what? Here’s what Ursula Le Guin, the final judge, had to say: “It works marvelously, with ‘this reporter’ becoming an increasingly real presence. A very funny, subtle story, which covers a lot of ground without seeming to, takes big risks and gets away with them, [and] ends brilliantly. . . .” See if you can read this story and resist the temptation to get a copy of Kurt’s 2005 collection, Little Criminals. I couldn’t.

Second Prize Winner: Brendan Kerr for “The Sunbather”

In a competition like this you’re bound to see a lot of great descriptive writing, and so it’s a real feat to get recognition for a story that obtains its gravity from its sensual description. That alone makes “The Sunbather” stand out. But there’s a lot of just-beneath-the-surface stuff going on in this coming-of-age story, too. Here’s Ursula Le Guin again: “[T]he movement of this story is elegant and precise, using the consciousness of the boy to bring a dead dog, a sick mother, and the girl next door all into a precarious and significant balance, while never belaboring the significance.” Yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes.

Third Prize Winner: Gregory Loselle for “Buried Dinner”

As the narrator digs in his side yard in an attempt to shore up the foundation of his sinking home, he discovers artifacts of a broken relationship that parallel his own recent experiences with his estranged wife, Brenda. Like “Calendar Girl Arrested, Freed,” this is a story without a straightforward narrative; and like that story, it’s richly comic (in spite of the various tragedies that befall the narrator). “The story is a strong, open metaphor, well carried out,” as Ursula Le Guin said.

Ursula Le Guin also extends her congratulations to all the finalists, assuring us that she enjoyed every story and found selecting three prize winners difficult. Here are the other finalists, listed alphabetically by author’s last name, just as they appear in the book:

Linda Barnhart, “Zagharoot”

When an woman gets a phone call from her ex-husband, who has just lost her job at a massage parlor because she has been exposed as a transsexual, she (the ex-wife) takes up the supporting friend role she (the ex-wife) has always played for her (the ex-husband). This is a story that promises to never be boring and always be more than a little offbeat. The final scene is proof that Fellini wasn’t an oddball surrealist; he was just visionary.

Danya Bush: “Looks Like Newsprint”

Two young girls fall in love at ballet school, and from there a tragedy develops. This one is a little like Dead Poets Society transferred to a Degas painting, with the emphasis on Degas and impressionism. In this short piece, there is a simple, poetic language that develops quickly to put you right there at that school and into the narrator’s point of view. Surprisingly effective.

Gregg Cusick: “My Father Moves Through Time Like a Dirigible”

I first came across this amazing piece while screening stories for the competition, and my first response was to go back and read it again when I reached the end. That’s unusual; if you’ve ever been involved in that sort of process, you’ll know that you typically are looking for every reason to move on and just get it over with. But “My Father Moves Through Time Like a Dirigible” screams to be read again and again. Here’s what goes on in this story: An 83-year-old man tells about his efforts to get his local middle school drama department to produce the play he’s written about the crash of the Shenandoah. But as the piece develops, you realize that you are both stuck in and freed of all temporal constraints. If that sounds nutty, so be it. This is a nutty story--it’s hilarious, it’s tragic, it’s completely original. You can forgive yourself for thinking by the end of this story that the narrator is not really the 83-year-old man he insists that he is throughout. He’s really his 43-year-old son or possibly the principal of the middle school himself. Or maybe he’s just another 13-year-old schoolboy attending the middle school and watching the school play as a plywood blimp floats from one side of the stage to the other. If none of this makes sense, you are forgiven. You must read the story for context. It’s brilliant.

Norman Girault: “You Must Remember This”

This one I’d better not give away too much--it’s way too much fun to read through the whole story of the WWII nurse known as “Nurse Beaver”--and yes, the nickname applies just as you may fear it does. Of all the stories in this collection, this is the one with the most epic sweep, covering several sub-plots and many decades, all leading up to a punchline that makes it as memorable as any of your favorite jokes. It’s just pure joy.

James Gish, Jr.: “Voices of the Doomed”

Many years after the fact, the narrator delivers her coming-of-age story, which involves her best friend from childhood, Brendy, and a promise they make to one another. The setting is Bible-belt America, and the details appropriately gothic and ominous. I love the ending, where the narrator finally keeps her promise, in a fashion.

Jendi Reiter: “The Albatross”

Sometimes the order of these stories doesn’t seem so arbitrary. Following “Voices of the Doomed” with this story turns this collection into one that gives a brief glimpse into the dark side of religious fervor. But whereas “Voices of the Doomed” comes more from Flannery O’Connor territory, “The Albatross” features one quite precocious child of New England amid something more like classic American Puritanism, possibly a Salinger character. Funny and poignant.

Lones Seiber: “The Way Home”

This is just a great yarn. A woman gets a call informing her that her Uncle Ray and Aunt Helen have died. As the story develops and we learn about the significance of this aunt and uncle, we (like the narrator) get increasingly less interested in the advice of the other characters who tell the narrator what to do. In the end, she makes the only decision that makes perfect sense, to our great satisfaction.

I’ll second Ursula Le Guin: Congratulations to all the finalists; the fine writing and great imagination poured into each one makes for a great collection the second year running.

Sissy and Cash Behind the Counter: Margaret Malone’s “Minor Theatre”

2008-11-07T13:22:00.000-08:00

The final finalist featured in the Wordstock 2007 Short Fiction collection is a great companion piece to the preceding story, “Corinth Behind the Counter.” Margaret Malone’s “Minot Theatre” also deals with an ambiguous relationship, but the two characters—known mainly by the names they put on their work badges in jest, Sissy and Cash—in Malone’s story are young hipster types working together at a movie theater, rather than the frumpy Corinth and her would-be suitor Lloyd. You can throw that distinction aside, though, and spend more time contemplating how two people obviously attracted to one another can get a lot out of their relationship if they don’t pair up.

You also get a lot out of these stories as a reader. Margaret Malone shares with the rest of the writers featured in this collection a real talent for description, with a knack for selecting just the right details at the right time. Here’s how she describes their work:

They are in the dark movie house, theater number two of two. They are supposed to be cleaning up, dumping whatever they find into the thick, black trash bags they drag from row to row, or offering what is left behind to lost and found or each other. What they ditch might be popcorn bags or empty cups, burrito wrappers, wet socks, beer bottles, bike locks, batteries, a flip flop, occasionally a syringe or used condom, and one time a pair of industrial strength black rubber gloves. What they might put in the big cardboard box in the office which is akin to opening their pockets could be glasses, keys, wallets, cash, knit caps, sweatshirts, CDs, scarves, coffee mugs, and once a journal written by a girl that was living in a van with her boyfriend who sold pot outside the supermarket, sometimes he would bite her when they kissed, it said, bite until she bled. They should be sweeping kernels off the floor. But the theater is pretty clean as is and she is tired, out drinking the night before, avoiding going home, avoiding less rumpled sheets and new familiar space that used to be filled with a couch and a boyfriend and his records lining the perimeter of the baseboard, alphabetical and pristine despite a proper shelf, a jagged alphabet trail leading a listener through three walls of living room and one wall of loft. Her boyfriend had liked his own things separate from hers. He did not like to share. An only child until late in life, sharing was just an extension of all the things that eventually went wrong with his family. So she let him.

It’s the eve of Wordstock 2008, so I’ll just give one last congratulations to last year’s batch of finalists before the unveiling of the 2008 finalists tomorrow.

Painting Cats by Deborah DeWit Marchant

2008-11-06T12:09:00.000-08:00

National Cat Day, October 29, was the launch date for Deborah DeWit Marchant's Painting Cats, the book that includes Deb's writing about her approach to painting cats, and reproductions of many of her paintings of cats. Here's some of what went on that day:

Deb's first appearance was on KATU's AM Northwest, with her cat Indie. Click to view.

Then Deb spent the late morning in conversation at KINK FM. You can hear that on their "Wordstock Author Highlights" page.

Deb's evening was spent at Annie Bloom's Books, where lovers of cats and paintings gathered to listen to Deb read and discuss her work. Jim Leisy introduced:

And Deb signed:

Corinth Stands Behind the Counter, Just Beyond Lloyd's Reach

2008-11-06T11:48:00.000-08:00

Jennifer Springsteen’s “Corinth Behind the Counter” opens with a scoop of egg salad transferred on to a piece of toast, then assembled and passed on to Lloyd, your prototypical ’50s lunch counter gourmand.

The bygone era of the drugstore lunch counter is captured perfectly in this story, and that atmosphere in turn is perfect for conveying the frustrated relationship between Lloyd and Corinth, his lunch-counter crush.

Did I say frustrated? But that implies something never stated in the story. It’s testament to Springsteen’s ability to tap into the power of understatement that we can read this story and fully get the psychology of Lloyd, some of which is achieved just by discussing his understanding of the perfectly made egg- or tuna-salad sandwich.

Other things happen in this story. Corinth’s mother dies and she is forced to leave the lunch counter in the hands of her less-than-capable sister, leading to the central drama of the story: Lloyd’s angst.

And if you get nothing else from the story, it should inspire you to appreciate an American classic, as in the case of this reader:

I liked Jennifer Springsteen's "Corinth Behind the Counter" so much, I got right up and made egg salad sandwiches. Enjoy.

Congratulations to Jennifer Springsteen for being awarded third prize in the Wordstock 2007 Short Fiction Competition. Watch this space for the prize winners and finalists for 2008.

Common Errors in English Usage 2nd Edition: It's book that deserves its reputation

2008-10-29T12:43:00.000-07:00

I was asked recently to name three common errors in English that everyone should learn to avoid. This is an invitation to expound (in a quite bloated way, preferably) and pass judgment and arbitrarily assign extreme importance to things that ultimately could never be ranked in any way. In other words, it was an invitation I could never decline, and it actually wasn't that hard to think of the three: "its" and "it's."

Well, OK, on its face, that's only one error, and a pretty simple one at that. "It's" with an apostrophe can only mean "it is" or "it has." The apostrophe takes the place of the missing letters in this case, just like the apostrophe in "don't" or "can't," so if you are using "it's" with an apostrophe and cannot logically replace it with either "it is" or "it has," then the correct spelling is "its" with no apostrophe. Example:

It's been too long since I spent the day at the seaside.
The maple shed its leaves assiduously throughout the fall afternoon.

I don't know how many times I've been handed a manuscript to edit where the author--literate, intelligent, successful--somehow had this distinction exactly backwards, or at the very least was not up to using the correct spelling more than about three out of five times, say.

But of course there's an excellent reason why "it's" and "its" get misused by capable writers. It's simply that the apostrophe has one other major function in English besides standing in for missing letters. The apostrophe also is used to mark the possessive case, as in "John's books" or "the leaders' conference." The problem, naturally, is that "its" is a possessive pronoun, so the instinct is to want to insert an apostrophe to mark possession. Pronouns are different from nouns, though. We just don't do apostrophes in our possessive pronouns (his, her, your, their) the way we do with our nouns.

So, then, enter common error in English #2: Correctly inserting the apostrophe in a possessive noun. Here's one that I often have to stop and think about, though the basic rule is straightforward: For a singular noun, add apostrophe-s to the end to make it possessive. For a plural noun ending in "s," add only an apostrophe to make it possessive, and for plural nouns not ending in "s" (such as children), add apostrophe-s to the end to make it possessive. Examples:

the boss's desk (singular noun; add apostrophe-s to form the possessive)
the child's bookshelf (singular noun; add apostrophe-s to form the possessive)
a managers' meeting (plural noun ending in "s"; add apostrophe to form the possessive)
the men's room (plural noun not ending in "s"; add apostrophe-s to form the possessive)

So far, so good--but there is one little hitch when it comes to proper nouns. For a proper noun ending in "s," there is an acceptable style that allows for adding just an apostrophe to the name to make it possessive, whether singular or plural. Example:

Paul Brians' excellent book on English usage
(singular proper noun made possessive by adding an apostrophe)
Jacqueline du Pré's recordings of Brahms' cello sonatas
(two singular proper nouns--one made possessive by adding apostrophe-s; the other made possessive by adding an apostrophe)
the Masons' expansive collection of exotic pets
(plural proper noun made possessive by adding an apostrophe)

Of course, the sign hanging in the yard of your neighbor's house probably should have no apostrophe at all; it should just read "The Smiths," I think. That is, I think the sign is short for [This is the house where] The Smiths [live]. But there may be an argument for adding an apostrophe to the end of "Smiths" if you think the sign stands for something like [This is] The Smiths' [house]. I don't think, however, that the case can be made for a sign reading this way: "The Smith's," though surely you will see such signs wherever you may roam.

Fine--that's two errors tied to "its" vs. "it's," but where could the third error to avoid be? It gets a bit trickier, since this is not clear-cut error-correction turf anymore, but consider these two (classic) sentences:

a) The committee reached its decision.
b) The committee reached their decision.

Note, first, that "its," not "it's," is the correct spelling in Example a). That's worth noting because there's my flimsy connection to the its/it's question I'm addressing. But the issue now becomes transmogrified--it's no longer a matter of wrestling with apostrophes and possessive forms; now it's a question of singular vs. plural. And here, I think, is the source of much confusion among native English speakers. It all seems pretty simple when you use sentences like this:

The dog wagged its tail.
The cats ate their dinner.

Baby stuff, of course. "Its" refers to the dog; "their" to the cats. If you mess this up you probably are not a native speaker of English. On the other hand, go back to sentences a) and b) above, and ask yourself what parts of the sentence are missing. Is it a) or b)?:

a) The committee[, acting as a unified whole,] reached its decision.
b) The [members of] the committee reached their decision.

And on this point you need to settle into some comfortable in-between space that decides both can be correct. Now, enlightened, you can go forward knowing you know which one you mean when using the singular (its) or the plural (their).

There is so much more to say about "their" and "they," and the tradition of the "singular they," which has been covered quite thoroughly elsewhere. For now, I'll just take the opportunity to announce that these issues and many others are addressed concisely, accurately, and fairly in Common Errors in English Usage 2nd Edition, which--as of today--is available for ordering and will be shipping in about three weeks. Have fun!

Next Up in The Wordstock Ten: Samantha Hudson's "Reprieve"

2008-10-29T12:42:00.000-07:00

What's a wife to do? Seek a reprieve, I suppose.

And so the wife, Maura, of "Reprieve" arranges for piano lessons for "the Vanden girl," a 14-year-old neighbor named Catherine, each Sunday afternoon. The husband will give the lessons. The music will assimilate with the afternoon air. Maura will lie by the pool.

"Reprieve" is is thus imbued with tremendous atmosphere and meditative quiet. Just barely under the surface, though, the drama is explosive. Maura will not tolerate her husband, and as the years go by does she become attracted to the Vanden girl? If so, it's a neat trick, as the husband fixates on on another possible lover, Daniel Hammond. Whatever the relationship--Catherine as surrogate daughter? Catherine as lost sibling or resurfaced childhood best friend?--that relationship is loaded with significance.

But as soon as I discuss this story, assertions melt away. To even raise the possibility of a physical attraction between Maura and the Vanden girl is preposterous--there's no evidence for it. This story is all about impressions of events, but where the events described are clear, the impressions are likely to be quite different from one reader to the next.

I suppose a small excerpt should be given by way of demonstration. Here's how it starts, our first taste of these three inscrutable characters:

Sundays were what Maura used to call a reprieve. Then, he wasn’t sure how she meant it.

“Peyton,” she’d say, “isn’t it about time for your reprieve?” and he’d shuffle off to the den, where he had begun giving piano lessons to the Vanden girl from a few streets over. Maura had set it up, when the Vanden girl was around fourteen. That first time, Peyton had waited on the piano bench. He’d worn his suit from work even though it was Sunday, but as soon as Maura had pushed the ratty Vanden girl into the room and shut the stained glass parlor doors behind her, he’d known it was unnecessary. The Vanden girl didn’t require suits. She wore shorts, sandals, and a purple halter top. Where did he get that word, halter top? Teaching at the high school had pushed all sorts of unnecessary things into his head, things he ran across unexpectedly and unhappily.

This story sets up perfectly the final two stories in The Wordstock Ten 2007 edition. I'll be writing up those two stories--"Corinth Behind the Counter" and "Minor Theatre"--just in time for the 2008 edition.

Limits of Language - a wealth of information

2008-09-30T11:19:00.000-07:00

Swedish linguist, Mikael Parvall, has written a fascinating book about languages for the general public. It is part “Book of Lists,” part “Guinness Book of World Records,” and part "Visual Encyclopedia," and it contains information on over one thousand languages! The subtitle of the book is "almost everything you didn't know you didn't know about language and languages." Parkvall answers questions such as these: Are there native speakers of Klingon? Has there ever been a state with Esperanto as its official language? What is the least useful dictionary ever produced? What is the world's smallest language? Does English have more words than other languages? In what country are people the most polyglot? Can words consist of consonants alone? He answers these questions and many more, providing an illuminating introduction to linguistics that all readers can appreciate and enjoy. Parkvall teaches and does research at Stockholm University, and has authored four other books on linguistics. He has expertise in Pidgin and Creole languages and the historical and geopolitical influences that affected their development.

Painting Cats launches on National Cat Day

2008-09-29T11:27:00.000-07:00

Artist Deborah DeWit Marchant's new book of paintings will be in book stores soon. Her first public event will be held on National Cat Day at Annie Bloom's Books, 7832 SW Capitol Highway, October 29 at 7:30pm. Deborah will discuss her book and sign copies. The book features 40 paintings and 21 pages of Marchant's autobiographical writing about cats. Noted literary author and activist, Marge Piercy, wrote the introduction to PAINTING CATS. If you are a cat lover, or appreciate Marchant's realistic, beutiful paintings, you will want to add this book to your collection. Check out more of her work on our site www.wmjasco.com. More public events in the coming months will be announced soon.