A really interesting article about Frank's coming out of the closet and his efforts toward gay equality in the U.S.
These made me laugh out loud. One thing I noticed immediately from this article is that people seemed to seriously respect this guy, regardless of his sexuality. I have a strong suspicion that his work, personality, interactions with people, and everything else had a major effect on how people responded to him initially coming out. He also seems like a very humble person who doesn't ever except anything from anyone, which certainly helps in situations like this. This is such a minor detail, but if you are't familiar with the epicness of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, prepare yourself for another couple long reads. Amazing stuff: Sun Myung Moon's lost Ecotopia Unification Church Profile: The Fall of the House of Moon I also love reading about (the second link I posted above is another good example of this) the younger versions of all these political figures that we know so well today. In some cases, it's a bit funny and humanizing. In others, like Newt Gingrich's case, a bit depressing. Excellent, excellent read. Thank you for sharing....the adjacent communities of North Attleborough and Attleboro. (Sic. I am not responsible for the peculiarities of Massachusetts’s official orthography.)
“Read my lips, no new taxes.” (The phrase has always bothered me because it is illogical—you tell people to read your lips when they cannot hear you, and this does not apply when you are speaking to them through a microphone.)
Media response was also largely favorable. The right-wing Washington Times, owned by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, enthusiastically added gay bashing to its regular denunciations of me—in which I took considerable pride—but they were a minor exception.
I was a kid when Clinton was in office and even then, as sophomoric as I was, I knew that "don't ask, don't tell" was a ludicrous policy.
I think that DADT helped prepare people for out members of the military. I read a few military web sites and have to say the opposition to gay soldiers is still incredibly strong. The fact that the military acknowledged that there were such things as honorably serving gay service members, even if they weren't allowed to be out did something to pave the still bumpy road of today. It might have been ludicrous but hate for gay people is also ludicrous and isn't going away anytime soon.
God, I could have used you yesterday during a debate about space en-dash space or just em-dash. We were revising our design proposal, none of us had a easily accessible copy of Microsoft Word to do it automatically for us. I swear the original writer had em dashes in between the dates (there were so many freaking dates) as well as in the body copy (where they belonged). Then the second designer replaced all of them with en-dashes. Finally I just HTML'd it up and posted it online so they could copy/paste. 3 hours later, all we could do is laugh about how ridiculous of a situation it was. Meanwhile the slack chat for another project was having a debate about premiere vs premier. Get this, the client wanted "premier" because it would allow the table column to be smaller, giving the title column more room. Except the word is question refers to the "premiere date" of television shows. Ahhhhh!
It could be intentional. My dad, a bookbinder, had a large job once from GM. I don't know the exact title they wanted him to print on the cover, but it had the word "employe". Naturally, instead of calling to confirm that "employe" is what they wanted, he did what any reasonable person would do, and he "fixed" their typo for them, only to find out that they had written exactly what they wanted, and he had to redo the whole job. Cost him a lot of money and time. Apparently, employee is one of the words that appears most frequently in their internal records, and they found that since it's a longish word they could shave pennies by not making their secretaries or scribe companies type the whole thing. Thus, "employe" entered the official GM lexicon. I would have to assume they don't use it anymore, considering that nobody does printing anymore with any volume like they did in the '80s and '90s. But still, it remains a lesson in the adage that the customer is always right, and even when it seems painfully obvious that they're wrong, you better double check....the client wanted "premier" because it would allow the table column to be smaller, giving the title column more room. Except the word is question refers to the "premiere date" of television shows.
Dashes are something I notice. A lot. I used to prefer em dash for parentheticals, but lately I find space en dash more readable. That is a poor reason. Fail. I actually prefer to write British English, which is technically incorrect American. The destruction of Latin roots irks me. E.g. 'centre' vs 'center.' The Latin root tells you a 'center' is a 'person who cents.' English is bad enough without destroying what little virtue it has left. I'd love to be an editor or typographer. Such a shame they're low-demand fields with lower pay.space en-dash space or just em-dash
the original writer had em dashes in between the dates
Yep, always wrong. Hyphens are technically permissible, but I strongly prefer en dashes. the client wanted "premier" because it would allow the table column to be smaller
Except the word is question refers to the "premiere date" of television shows.
ever read "Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue" by John McWhorter? he's a prof at Columbia University. amazing read, and amazing to listen to him read his own audio book too. It talks about why english is the way it is (Useless "Do", etc) , and why it's so different from other germanic languages.