Enero 13, 2013

"I was reckless writing about recklessness."

I say, noting that I got quoted over at Instapundit with a missing "it's" apostrophe: "he’s entirely reckless about what these laws would really mean to ordinary people, and its a recklessness that thrives in the mind of someone who...."

"Oh! It's blogging," says Meade. "It's the internet. Think how many times you've gotten it right."

"And it's more embarrassing to get the apostrophe wrong the other way," I soothe myself, referring to  putting the apostrophe in "its" when it's supposed to be out.

"It's embarrassing to be embarrassed," Meade asserts aphoristically.

"But I was criticizing recklessness at the very point when I was reckless," I brood nonetheless. "It's like the way whenever you mock a misspelling, you end up misspelling something."

I decide to write this post, which — speaking of blogging — is the antidote to embarrassment.

***

On the rooftops they dance
Valentino-type tangos
While the makeup man’s hands
Shut the eyes of the dead
Not to embarrass anyone
The sky is embarrassed
And I must be gone 

24 (na) komento:

Rick ayon kay ...

Excellent. It's good to know that some people still care.

Fritz ayon kay ...

You could just have called it irony.

rhhardin ayon kay ...

Belmont club is careful enough to get every it's vs its choice backwards.

Mogget ayon kay ...

Althouse is human. Who knew? ;)

rhhardin ayon kay ...

The mnemonic is that you don't type possessive her's so don't type possessive it's. Then it turns out that people do type her's.

McTriumph ayon kay ...


I prefer to ignore proper punctuation or speling as it more represents my thinking sloppy ;-)

pm317 ayon kay ...

Shame on you, Althouse!

This brings back memories..As a grad TA teaching a class, I had to argue what is right (and I was right), it's or its given the context we were arguing about, with a smart aleck student.

Hindi-nagpakilala ayon kay ...

Ah, we see glimpses of the attention to detail - shall we even say perfectionism? - that drove the girl to such accomplishments.

Where is the "Althouse like human" tag?

Lem Vibe Bandit ayon kay ...

You, a law professor.

Tim ayon kay ...

The Internet wouldn't be the Internet without misspellings, bad grammar, conspiracy theories, pop-ups, flame wars and porn.

Or so they say.

Shouting Thomas ayon kay ...

Apostrophes are more important than politics.

More interesting, too, when you think about it.

Lyle ayon kay ...

Never mock bad spelling?

Ann Althouse ayon kay ...

Of course, I know the correct rule. The problem in typing is that homophones pop out of your fingers so easily. "To" for "too" happens more often than it doesn't. You just don't see it the first time. You have to proofread, but proofreading has its own weird perceptual distortions. Being an optimist, I see things as they should be. I can look at a typo and genuinely see what's supposed to be there.

Ann Althouse ayon kay ...

"The Internet wouldn't be the Internet without misspellings, bad grammar, conspiracy theories, pop-ups, flame wars and porn."

The previous post and the next post are about pop-ups.

Guildofcannonballs ayon kay ...

"Being an optimist, I see things as they should be. I can look at a typo and genuinely see what's supposed to be there."

I wonder if this is correlated in any way with dyslexia?

edutcher ayon kay ...

Embarrassment always haunts one.

I would have thought a lawprof would be a little more reflexive about getting it right, but I've seen touch typists whose favorite key seems to be backspace.

Lem Vibe Bandit ayon kay ...

Loose and lose lost me.

Hindi-nagpakilala ayon kay ...

RE: "Being an optimist, I see things as they should be."

To the optometrist this is a life's calling.

(Are the bifocal lenses half full or half blurry?)

Wince ayon kay ...

Althouse, "embarrassed" by flashing her... "its"?

It's... it's... no, no... it's.

ErnieG ayon kay ...

That excuse about the number of times you've gotten it right reminded me of the old fellow who was cited for running a red light, and complained that he had never gotten proper credit for the green lights he had stopped for.

Basta! ayon kay ...

"Loose" for "lose" makes me grind my teeth. I can see thinking that the -u- sound is more likely to be spelled with a double-o, but you'll never get a -z- sound out of that -oose-

Just consider the parallels: caboose, goose, hoosegow, moose, noose, papoose

Jaq ayon kay ...

choose.

Hazy Dave ayon kay ...

No time, Toulouse.

Nichevo ayon kay ...

I love it when you disappear my posts. It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. Don't you die a little inside, though, when you do that?

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