Fishermen aren’t the only people who lament the one that got away. For those of us in writing/editing positions, the one that got away is not just a reality — it’s a daily fear with which we live every day.
The one that got away, for writers and editors, is the dreaded mistake. It’s the misspelled word, the misplaced letter, or — most recently in my case — the word that eluded the delete key in a sentence that underwent one-too-many revisions. Continue reading
By Jason Menard
Oh, the poor apostrophe. Such a simple sign; so misunderstood. So why is this seemingly insignificant punctuation speck so capable of causing such consternation?
Recently, The New York Times posted an article which used the title “H.M.O.’s Would Treat Medicaid Patients.” See anything wrong with that? Some do, some don’t – and that’s part of the issue. Their style guide dictates an apostrophe for pluralizing initialisms. Personally, I would not use the apostrophe, but there’s no hard-and-fast rule for it.
By Jason Menard
Two political events designed to stop a Conservative majority are noble in intent, but are simply two wastes of valuable time and votes, which really only work in an ideal world. Instead, these actions actually have the potential to do more damage to the Canadian election process and represent short-sighted solutions to much deeper problems.
Pair Vote represents everything that’s wrong with federal politics. First, it claims that its intent is “to prevent a false majority by the Conservatives.” The Conservatives have not had a majority, false or otherwise, since they’ve been in power. They have a plurality – there’s a big difference. Continue reading
By Jason Menard
Remember the old jokes? A PC dinner reservation would be announced by the maitre d’ as, “Conservatives – Party of Two.” That was back in 1993 when, after the failure of both Meech Lake and Charlottetown, along with the residual distaste of the GST implementation and the rise of the Reform Party left the once-mighty Progressive Conservatives a shell of their former selves.
So could the Liberals now be preparing for a similar serving of crow in an election that suggests that the once lightly regarded NDP has passed the once-mighty Liberal Party of Canada in the polls? Continue reading
Bryzgalov, you see, went on an ignorance-filled rant against the Manitoban capital, castigating it for it’s cold winters, lack of excitement, and death of parks and family oriented activities. Of course, Bryzgalov is speaking from the vast experience he’s gleaned from at most two games played in Manitoba during his stint in the AHL. Continue reading
The M-Dash by Jason Menard 