A few weeks ago I was killing some time before this affair, literally walking down the street minding my own business. In this case, it was Broome Street in SoHo, New York.
A guy named came up to me as I was passing the Broome Street Gallery, introducing himself as Daithi, and we got into some small talk about the book and what not. He invited me to come in from the cold for some free wine and check out some art. The gallery was throwing an exhibition called Abstractions From Elsewhere that night, showcasing original pieces from eight abstract artists.
I went in for about a half hour, checking out some wonderful pieces, and rapping out with a couple of the painters. There were two particular pieces on the far end of the studio that caught my eye and was immediately drawn to. I asked one of the girls there who the artist was, and she informed me that they were Daithi’s. Cool.
Daithi’s the real thing, cranking out paintings, drawings, and sculpture. Out-of-this-world stuff. Check it out. His site also includes a video that really captures the spirit of a person following his muse.
We’d planned to hook up later that evening after both events, but got crossed up and weren’t able to find each other. Good thing for email, which has given us the means to follow up on our hang in the last couple weeks. Daithi’s now back in Wisconsin painting, and getting ready to head down to Florida to open his seasonal business of casting bronze.
A mixed-breed dog in Iraq, unthinkably abused by the Iraqis with injuries that included intentionally severed ears and screwdriver puncture wounds, found a most unlikely friend in what was supposed to be his enemy. Back in October, United States Marine Maj. Brian Dennis began noticing a war-torn dog in the desert near the Syria border, following his squadron’s patrol. This continued for weeks. One cold day in December, the dog, sporting fresh wounds and near death, finally made contact with Dennis, who was “dumbfounded” by the savageness displayed in the pup’s injuries. Like any decent dude, Dennis concocted a battlefield dressing of Neosporin, applied it to the mutt’s wounds, and then received orders to shove out. He complied, leaving the dog behind. To his surprise, the dog he dubbed “Nubs” followed him SEVENTY MILES THROUGH THE DESERT IN SUB-FREEZING TEMPERATURES.
What happened next was, well, have a look at the video.
The Early Show on CBS had a segment called Six-Word Memoirs Can Say It All yesterday. It included interviews with Larry and Rachel, along with some special appearances from a few household names.
From ProofreadNOW:
Are you set on question marks with other marks of punctuation?
“Well, are you?” he asked.
The position of question marks is always logical, though sometimes a compromise is necessary to avoid two question marks close together, and sometimes the convention prohibiting its use with the comma ignores logic.
The question mark should never be used with a period, except, of course, when the period is not a true period but merely a point indicating an abbreviation: Is the proper form Ms. or Mrs.? It can be used with points of ellipsis, too–points of ellipsis are not true periods.
The question mark should not be used with the comma. This causes a problem when the question mark ends a quotation and the sentence continues. He asked, “Why me?” which seemed an odd question seems underpunctuated, because if the quotation were not a question, a comma would signal both the end of the quotation and the beginning of the second clause, as in He said, “I suppose I deserve it,” which seemed an odd remark. Nevertheless, He asked, “Why me?,” which seemed an odd question is wrong, and He asked, “Why me?”, which seemed an odd question, with the comma after the closing quotation mark, is doubly wrong. The comma should not be used, even though using it would be quite logical. An exception is sometimes made when the question mark actually has no function in the sentence but is part of a title: His first poem, titled “Why Me?,” was dedicated to his mother. This exception has some merit.* Other exceptions are made in some scholarly, legal, and other special contexts that are beyond the scope of today’s advice.
Combining the question mark with the exclamation point–Why me?! or Why me!?–is usually frowned on as childish.*
*I always appreciate the morsels coming in from the thinking folks at ProofReadNOW, but I must take issue to a couple things here.
First, I question the merit of the sentence: His first poem, titled “Why Me?,” was dedicated to his mother. If the comma is indeed part of the poem’s title, then fine. But if it is instead being used by the author of this sentence, then the comma should be logically outside the quotation marks containing the title: His first poem, titled “Why Me?”, was dedicated to his mother.
Second, who are you calling childish?!
Then again, one could (should!?) probably regard that as a compliment.
Sometimes I think punctuation invokes a passion not unlike religion: it’s just a matter of time before a war breaks out. And I’d probably enlist myself as one of the generals for the good side. Good thing for therapy.
