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November 15, 2005
reader beware
I love fish. Have you ever noticed that most oratory or discussion starts with a gross over-generalization and is immediately followed with a series of clarifying remarks? "The Cubs are terrible." Followed by: Well, their starting pitching's great. And there are certainly some solid cornerstones on the roster to build around. Or "George Bush is a fascist!" Followed by: Well, he doesn't really embrace overtly discriminatory policies. And I suppose he doesn't profess hatred for other people. What about: "I'm starving. I'll eat anything." However: I don't really feel like eating Chinese though.
So I'll say it again. I love fish. Just not fishy fish. Or fish that actually tastes like fish. Like salmon. Salmon, I feel, is gross. As are the so-called "steak-like" fish. So, what I really mean is that Christina makes this totally amazing fish with some sort of cheesy stuff on it. And it's amazing. I'd imagine that if heaven were edible, it would taste like this fish. What does all this have to do with anything? Well, it doesn't. My goal is to make everyone feel dumber for having read this. Is it working?
When I was really young, I used to watch Sportscenter every morning before school. Well, maybe I'd watch 10 minutes of it. But it was always the last 10 minutes. And the last thing they do on Sportscenter is the "Did You Know?" segment. I loved it. Nothing fills your brain with useless, trivial information like the "Did You Know?" segment. So, to stick with my previously-mentioned purpose, I would like to share such a random tidbit. A piece of trivia, if you will. This may be useful to those of you who consider Trivial Pursuit to be a sport.
Did You Know: When using quotation marks at the end of a sentence, the period, comma, question mark, or whatever else always goes before the end quotation mark. The reason for this is quite simple. In the days of typewriters, the quotation mark was not a substantial enough mark around which to build a strong hammer. The hammer is the piece that makes the mark. So, in order to make the hammer strong enough, the period and quotation mark were placed on the same hammer. On that hammer, the period came first.
Don't you wish we had better reasons for rules like these?
And now, I must respond to unfounded accusations that I am closet White Sox fan. To be blunt, I am not. Am I a Sox fan? Yes. I have been for a long time. When they play the Cubs, who do I root for? The Cubbies. Always. Being a Cubs fan and being a Sox fan are not mutually exclusive sorts of things. Picking a side is certainly important, but there's no reason to harbor ill will towards one unless they're in a head-to-head situation. In the past, rooting for the Sox has been just as painful as rooting for the Cubs. Not this year though. The Sox played my favorite kind of baseball -- that which is focused on defense, pitching, and winning as a team. That's why I rooted for them all year. Except those six games when they played the Cubs.
Posted by ben at November 15, 2005 12:47 PM
Comments
Another random typewriter-related fact: letters are classified as "uppercase" and "lowercase" because in the early days of printing presses, that's where the letters were stored. Capitals in the upper drawers of the cases, others in the lower drawers.
Posted by: Sarah at November 28, 2005 9:44 AM