We just had our annual Halloween lunch here at my company. i had forgotten how uncomfortable it makes me. i'm not entirely sure why i'm so uncomfortable, but i am. It probably has something to do with the fact that people are putting on an act and expecting me to reciprocate in kind. Additionally, most of these are people that i don't know very well. i have trouble enough engaging in a 'normal' (non-wallflower) conversation with people i don't know. Asking me to add a persona (or an appropriate response to someone else's persona) is just too much. Besides, i have my own carefully constructed persona to keep up, thank you very much! Also, i realize that it's all in fun, but i still have an almost visceral negative reaction to that kind of obvious pretending. It bothers me in real life, and i find it hard to just turn it off in a Halloween setting with people i don't know. Finally, i have a (small) irrational fear that, in order to feel comfortable in playing that pretend game, i'll immerse myself a little too deep in character and like it. From there, it's only a small (conceptual) step to start pretending more and more, and the next thing you know, i'll disappear for a couple weeks doing some covert operations for the IMF. While 'cool', it would not be healthy for me or anyone else i know.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Halloween
By the way, can someone tell me where the quotes are actually supposed to go on that last sentence? i'm never really sure how it should be done when used for emphasis. Or in the following sentence: Have you ever heard someone say, "I'll do that!"?
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3 unique comments:
i think you're "i'll do that!" sentence was correct.
as far as the last sentence, i think it should be:
while "cool," it would not be....
but i actually have no idea now that i'm REALLY thinking about it....
As always, happy to provide grammar advice.
Quotes should never be used for emphasis. They can, however, be used to indicate slang or a specual use of a word. So, "cool" should only be quotated if you were using some other definition of cool (such as 'awesome-sounding but actually undesireable'). If you want emphasis, use italics.
As to the other sentence: I doubt anyone but the largest stickler for antiquated rules would complain about it. They might say that the bang should be removed -- but since that would cause a loss of information. The sentence looks good to me.
Thanks for the advice. So what if both punctuation marks are the same? Because i really need to write the following sentence (or not):
Did she just say, "Where did you learn the phrase, 'How should i know?'?"?
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