https://www.theatlantic.com/science/arc ... od/559304/

(I didn't include the text from the article as it has a copyright notice on it)

I don’t care what The Chicago Manual of Style and the Modern Language Association Style Manual says or any other style manual.

There have always been and should always be TWO SPACES AFTER THE PERIOD AT THE END OF AN ENGLISH SENTENCE.

I learned to type on a typewriter with blank keys. Seriously, there were no markings on any of the keys.

So, that makes me right on this very controversial topic. <wink>

Now, if we could just get everyone to agree as to when the end quote comes before or after the period at the end of the sentence. Wanna really get someone going? Just put a question mark inside the end quote and a period after the end quote followed by two spaces. <wink and evil grin>

Next week the Oxford Comma.

Personally, I like ,!, for low hangers and .!. for tight hangers. And :- for flaccid. Curved is .(. And really thick is := Who says punctuation can t be sexy ?

cutnbulls2ox (imported) wrote: Sat May 19, 2018 6:41 pm Personally, I like ,!, for low hangers and .!. for tight hangers. And :- for flaccid. Curved is .(. And really thick is := Who says punctuation can t be sexy ?

@cutbulls2ox

I agree. These are my favorites:

A Butt is (_ _)

An Asshole is (_*_)

A Virgin is (_._)

And a slut is (_0_)

---

Back on topic, I've tried to put one space after a sentence. But my right thumb has a mind of its own when it comes to my 7th grade typing teacher's lessons and just will not put only one space.

Well, you live and learn things every time you log on here. There used to be a back pocket hanky code. What you wanted or was interested in was reflected by the color of hanky you displayed. Can't remember the colors but but it was interesting.

Pick up a first-run Harry Potter novel and study the punctuation the publishers used. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

gandalf (imported) wrote: Sun May 20, 2018 7:24 am There used to be a back pocket hanky code

Yeah, there were many codes used in gay bars.

One common code was for gay men to wear their keys clipped on the belt loop of their Levi 501's button down jeans (there were other jeans - but, you'd never have known it from the 70's and 80's bar scene). If keys were clipped onto the right side it meant the guys was "Dominate" or a top. The right side meant he was the "submissive" or bottom.

Another code was the bottom button of the 501's would be left undone and turned outward to make it obvious. This meant you were "looking".

When the code was explained to me - while Jimmy Carter was still President - I was told to think "Right in the rear end" and "Left without saying goodbye after fucking me". Hey, I've always remembered it.

The hanky code was at first rather simple. I really just remember seeing blue, light blue, green, and yellow. Blue was for anal, light blue for oral, green was either selling it or buying a sex worker (we didn't call them sex workers) and yellow was water sports.

I knew some of the other colors, but really didn't see them until later while attending events like Folsom Street Fair. Over the years I've also seen "guides" that have different meanings for some colors.

I also remember guys wearing pendants on their gold necklaces. (a gold necklace for guys was pretty common - especially one that was more of a choker. Perhaps 20" or 22").

The Greek symbol "lambda" could mean other things - but in public if you saw I guy wearing it as a pendant the chances were good he was gay. Add that to the bottom button being undone (even at noon in a sandwich shop) and it normally meant he was looking for a quick suck or fuck. It was rare to see a hanky outside a bar - I sometimes did - but more in San Francisco than in other places.

I saw this in bars more than on the street, guys would wear a pendant on their necklace with a pair of scissors in a circle with either a line through it (meaning they were uncut) or no line through it (meaning they were cut). I came out in Miami and the bar scene was about 50/50 cut to uncut. So, if it was a deal breaker, the pendant helped.

The last code I remember was a torn off pack jeans pocket. It was the right rear pocket (meaning they were submissive) and it meant they were "taken" or "owned". Sometimes both pockets were torn off and it meant the same thing.

Speaking of those 501 Levi jeans, they were almost always worn commando or with a jockstrap. Sometimes I'd meet guys wearing briefs under their jeans, but it was rare.

Now, on behalf of everyone alive during the 1970s thru the 1990s, I'd like to apologize for white jeans. Best as I know there was no code to them other than they should have been thrown in the trash after labor day 1975 and never seen again.

re: the topic's title, I don't think there's ever a need to put two periods after a sentence. Maybe three to indicate elipsis ...

As for the double space: my thumb too puts in two spaces, learned on the old manual typewriter. But it was mostly because I was told to, but I also thought it looked better.

Now, though, most people use word processors or web pages that can handle various fonts and styles. In particular, on the web, adjacent spaces are ignored (displayed as one space). So even if you put two in, you'll only "see" one. However, it's quite possible that the "style" will expand the one space that is displayed so it is much wider (e.g. an m-space, the width of an M, as opposed to an n-space, the width of an N). So if the graphic designer wants the browser to display more space, it will be there whether the typist put in two spaces or not. The browser or word processor can also put in various widthed spaces to make the right margin justified instead of ragged, so it's pretty obvious it can make each space as wide or narrow as it thinks it should be in that particular spot.

Think of the old typewriter habits many of us developed as being for cues to a typesetter. If you underline some text, it meant that you really wanted it in italics (probably a book title), but the old monospaced typewriter didn't have it so everyone did underline instead. In the same way ALL CAPS was the signal that meant "boldface".

Stepping back a bit, it is possible now to do all sorts of tricks if the style and text are separate. So if you somehow "tag" a section of text as "book_title", the stylesheet can make it italic, or italic and a different font, or normal font and red color, or whatever the designer thinks looks best; and one can switch from one style sheet to another to make the title look different without making a change to the text at all. But it is a trick that only works smoothly if you keep the text the text, put "tags" in the text that indicate function, and put the styles for each tag into a separate style (sheet). This seems counter-intuitive to all of us who learned on a typewriter, where we tried to make it look a certain way in addition to just getting the text onto the paper.

I am continuously outraged and exasperated at how the English language, it's spelling and grammar have been hijacked and twisted!

First, there should ALWAYS be two spaces after a period that ends a sentence! I remember an episode of the old Perry Mason television series, where there was a typed note used in a criminal case, but the person who actually typed the note was not known, Perry Mason proved that the person who typed that note did NOT learn how to type in the U.S. because there were three spaces after a period that ended a sentence, turned out the three spaces after ending a sentence was the way they taught typing in Switzerland where the actual typist had learned to type.

Second, "history" is spelled with an "h" as the first letter, unless you are Eliza Dolittle (before professor Higgins taught her how to speak English) you pronounce that h as a consonant, and since it is a consonant you NEVER say "an historic event," it is "a historic event."

Finally, the CORRECT spelling of "potatoe" IS WITH THE "E" at the end! I know, I know, a long time ago, the vice presidential candidate Dan Quayle was excoriated in the national media because he made that "mistake" with the spelling of "potato," but when Dan Quale was taught how to spell the word, the correct spelling was in fact "potatoe."

I KNOW I an completely wright in my speling and gramer because I never make misteaks! And if I ever did make a mistake it would be rare!

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Amzanig, Huh?

Yruo rghit! Ttah is fckugni azmangi!