Pedants' Paradise

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  • Serial_Apologist
    Full Member
    • Dec 2010
    • 37545

    Originally posted by ahinton View Post
    Through a glass darkly?...
    A bit of a pane...

    Comment

    • LMcD
      Full Member
      • Sep 2017
      • 8396

      Originally posted by Serial_Apologist View Post
      A bit of a pane...
      These last few messages have left me feeling shattered.

      Comment

      • Serial_Apologist
        Full Member
        • Dec 2010
        • 37545

        Originally posted by LMcD View Post
        These last few messages have left me feeling shattered.
        You've been framed!

        (Time to get my coat and bid all goodnight!)

        Comment

        • LeMartinPecheur
          Full Member
          • Apr 2007
          • 4717

          Dash it?

          This from the AOL UK news service this morning:

          Baroness Dido Harding, who is interim executive chair of the National Institute for Health Protection – and oversees the NHS Test and Trace system, is due to give evidence to the Commons Science and Technology Committee.

          Am I alone in feeling the dash after protection is a) unnecessary, and b) plain wrong? Two dashes is one way to make a paranthesis, one dash can be useful for a big jump in the direction of a sentence. No good reason here!
          I keep hitting the Escape key, but I'm still here!

          Comment

          • LMcD
            Full Member
            • Sep 2017
            • 8396

            Originally posted by LeMartinPecheur View Post
            This from the AOL UK news service this morning:

            Baroness Dido Harding, who is interim executive chair of the National Institute for Health Protection – and oversees the NHS Test and Trace system, is due to give evidence to the Commons Science and Technology Committee.

            Am I alone in feeling the dash after protection is a) unnecessary, and b) plain wrong? Two dashes is one way to make a paranthesis, one dash can be useful for a big jump in the direction of a sentence. No good reason here!
            Surely there should be two dashes or none, although the former could perhaps imply that she's got too much on her plate.

            Comment

            • Pulcinella
              Host
              • Feb 2014
              • 10867

              Originally posted by LeMartinPecheur View Post
              This from the AOL UK news service this morning:

              Baroness Dido Harding, who is interim executive chair of the National Institute for Health Protection – and oversees the NHS Test and Trace system, is due to give evidence to the Commons Science and Technology Committee.

              Am I alone in feeling the dash after protection is a) unnecessary, and b) plain wrong? Two dashes is one way to make a paranthesis, one dash can be useful for a big jump in the direction of a sentence. No good reason here!
              Yes: plain wrong.
              If some sort of separation of roles is required, which they might have thought that the dash implied, they could have written:
              ... Harding, who is interim executive chair of the National Institute for Health Protection, and who also oversees the NHS Test and Trace system, is due to give ...

              Comment

              • cloughie
                Full Member
                • Dec 2011
                • 22109

                Originally posted by LeMartinPecheur View Post
                This from the AOL UK news service this morning:

                Baroness Dido Harding, who is interim executive chair of the National Institute for Health Protection – and oversees the NHS Test and Trace system, is due to give evidence to the Commons Science and Technology Committee.

                Am I alone in feeling the dash after protection is a) unnecessary, and b) plain wrong? Two dashes is one way to make a paranthesis, one dash can be useful for a big jump in the direction of a sentence. No good reason here!
                Confusion in the dash for testing, perhaps, and the need to be punctual - a comma might have served better!

                Comment

                • Padraig
                  Full Member
                  • Feb 2013
                  • 4218

                  Dashing causes typos or plain bad spelling.

                  Comment

                  • LMcD
                    Full Member
                    • Sep 2017
                    • 8396

                    What are the chances of anything Dido says satisfying Andy Burnham?

                    Comment

                    • french frank
                      Administrator/Moderator
                      • Feb 2007
                      • 30190

                      Money laundering in this country is becoming "vanishingly difficult to investigate" [quote on BBC News]. Does that mean it's getting easier?
                      It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

                      Comment

                      • cloughie
                        Full Member
                        • Dec 2011
                        • 22109

                        Originally posted by french frank View Post
                        Money laundering in this country is becoming "vanishingly difficult to investigate" [quote on BBC News]. Does that mean it's getting easier?
                        Do you mean the laundering or the investigation?

                        Comment

                        • cloughie
                          Full Member
                          • Dec 2011
                          • 22109

                          Originally posted by LMcD View Post
                          What are the chances of anything Dido says satisfying Andy Burnham?
                          Has she got a partner called Aeneas?

                          Comment

                          • french frank
                            Administrator/Moderator
                            • Feb 2007
                            • 30190

                            Originally posted by cloughie View Post
                            Do you mean the laundering or the investigation?
                            Money laundering therefore easier because vanishingly difficult to investigate
                            It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

                            Comment

                            • Pulcinella
                              Host
                              • Feb 2014
                              • 10867

                              Originally posted by cloughie View Post
                              Has she got a partner called Aeneas?
                              More pertinently, perhaps, does she possibly think that the wrongs she has done may create no trouble?
                              Of course, we don't yet know her fate.

                              When I am laid, am laid in earth, May my wrongs create
                              No trouble, no trouble in thy breast;
                              Remember me, remember me, but ah! forget my fate.
                              Remember me, but ah! forget my fate.

                              Comment

                              • Pulcinella
                                Host
                                • Feb 2014
                                • 10867

                                Polly Toynbee in today's Guardian:

                                Scientists are not gods, nor robots.

                                Surely better as
                                Scientists are neither gods nor robots
                                Scientists are not gods; nor are they robots
                                or
                                Scientists are not gods or robots

                                Her 'nor' looks (and sounds) odd to me.
                                It might almost give the impression that robots aren't gods either.
                                Last edited by Pulcinella; 28-09-20, 15:58. Reason: Poly corrected to Polly!

                                Comment

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