i received the following e-mail from my sidekick, the parenthetical parent, today:
"On a different topic, as a fellow keeper of the language, I take issue with your wanton disregard for capitals. How can you be so passionate about the apostrophe, yet butcher the capital letter? Is our great country not worthy of a capital C? Are the mighty rivers and grand bodies of water not esteemed enough to be capitalized? Can you face the North Saskatchewan River after you have labelled it the north saskatchewan? You, my child, are Caylie Dawn, as I so proudly decared on the registry of your birth. Please stop decapitating capitals!
Lovingly yours,
Mom (with a capital M)"
yikes! as i explained to her, i avoid capitals primarily for aesthetic reasons. i think they are ugly. but it makes me proud to know that my mother is as much a grammar nazi as the esteemed drs. zinck and everest. quite the contrast from my dad, who writes me letters saying, "hello they're, pip! how,s it going? its been snowing lately, and getting to cold here. hope your doing well. love me"
i love my dad, but am thankful his spelling and grammar skills (or lack thereof) did not rub off on me.
arg! why do i talk so much about punctuation!? i am in south america! it is still hot. it is sunny. i think i scorched my retinas last week when we went boating. i ordered some adidas shoes online today. not much else to report.
13 years ago
3 comments:
dear caylie dawn,
i relate to your mother's frustration over the lack of capital letters, but i excuse it as a consequence of loving ee cummings' poetry. am i right?
so good to hear your news!
oxoxoamz
dear caylie dawn,
i agree that capital letters are often bulky and ungraceful, a winter coat that we wouldn't wear because it would cover up our snazzy lower case halloween costumes.
i like my big furry winter coat, though. CONUNDRUMMING ensues!
love joel
ps you have the knack my friend, the knack for blogging. blog and blog and blog and never stop, not even once.
pps did you get the package i sent you? i hope you do before christmas.
it's true! thanks to edward estlin, my childhood reverence for capital letters will never be the same again.
good to see you've emerged from the depths of marking/family life/e-mailphobia to write to me, dr. zinck!
well said, joel kelly. makes me miss my winter coats. and my snazzy halloween costumes. this year, we are having a kick-off party for the after-school program i've been planning, and it will be a halloween/costume party, and i am going to be a punctuation princess. i bought some pink mosquito netting to be my dress. i might hand out "punctuation" - the little holes punched out from paper punchers.
i will not stop. so have no fear.
i will not, can not, while i'm here.
i said i'll write, and write i will.
i'll write until you've had your fill.
to write for you will be my goal.
because you are my good friend joel.
(we have a collection of dr. seuss books in our internet cafe. sorry.)
i did not receive your package yet, or any other package, for that matter. i will address this issue in my next blog entry.
love cayliedawn
Post a Comment