The Other Side
I enjoyed the blogging you did about your hospital stay. I too was in the hospital with an "affliction" many years ago, so I can relate. I feel a kinship with you, my brother, for we both got a "glimpse" of the "other side" and lived to tell about it. It's an experience I wouldn't wish on anyone, but I'm a better person for it, and yet, I can't explain it to people who haven't been "in my shoes". I will be contacting your office shortly to hopefully set up a counseling session where we can sit and "chat".Your over-use of quotation marks is disturbing -- even more disturbing than the "kinship" you profess. See how I quoted you, using quotes (abbr) in an appropriate manner? One of me pet peeves is when people (like you) use quotes for emphasis (I'll blog about my top 5 pet peeves some other time). Not only is it meaningless, it's also usually redundant. For instance, if I wished someone "Happy Holidays", that's stupid -- not only because being politically correct makes me nauseous, but also because the term 'Happy Holidays' is already a widely (and wildly) accepted expression with no need for emphasis ... Which brings me to the acceptable uses for quotation marks:
1) Quoting someone, usually mockingly - e.g. This guy may have an "affliction", but it's more mental than physical.
2) Approximation - e.g. I had a relatively "happy" holiday.
3) Euphemism - e.g. Congratulations to our new "Sheriff".
4) Slang (but only if it's out of character) - e.g. I don't know if I'm exactly "down" with that particular idea.
The best use if you can cross categories - e.g. I don't know what "other side" this guy's talking about, and I'd rather not "glimpse" it if it has anything to do with some of the procedures I went through...
That right there is a deft mix of mocking quotation & euphemism.
posted by Lawrence A. Fing @ 12:00 PM
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