What to write about on Monday? I can't write too much about Tom Rob Smith's The Farm until I finish and know just what I can and can't say in order to not give too much of this twisted plot away. You see, at this point, the lines are blurred. One of the three main characters is living in reality, but I can't tell which one. Sharing the wrong info about the book could end up being a spoiler, so best to wait until next week with that one.
Passing through the liquor department at Festival Foods solved my problem. Right there, displayed for all the world to see was a beautifully handwritten sign saying
Sangria
Red "OR" white
I should have taken a picture. Instead, I had the following short conversation with the nice young lady at the checkout:
What are the quotation marks for?
Quotation marks?
Yup. Right here on your sign.
Oh. We have red and white Sangria.
Right. But what are the quotation marks for? (By this time I was understanding that she was clueless when it came to issues of punctuation)
Oh. We have red or white - using air quotes this time.
That's great but...
They're for emphasis.
So, there you have it. A new use for quotation marks. You all know that I make plenty of spelling errors, and I seldom take the time to check on whether the period goes inside or outside of quotation marks. I am confident that my regular readers either accept my laziness, or forgive my mistakes on a weekly basis.
Anyway, instead of book bytes, today I will share some of my favorite word and book related websites and blogs.
To show that the sweet girl I maligned above is not alone in her quotation mark quandary, go to www.unnecessaryquotes.com. The web name is self explanatory...and it has morphed into a pretty funny book.
I won't go into detailed descriptions of each site, since, in most cases, the name says it all.
I'm not suggesting you dig into these right now. Rather, savor these beautiful Lakeshore days, and bookmark these sites for rainy days, sick days, or those days you skip work "just because".
verbivore.com - my top site. Created by Richard Lederer, former host of "A Way with Words" on WPR. It's an all purpose word site with definitions, games, hilarious misuses and more
engrish.com - celebrating outrageous misuse of language
chetthedog.com - an interactive blog from my favorite book character, Chet the sleuthing canine. Really, your dog can correspond with Chet, send pictures, or just read about the cases that Chet and Bernie have been solving.
realitysteve.com - This is my guilty pleasure site and has naught to do with books or words. Somehow Steve gets the scoop on what will happen on future episodes of reality shows like "The Bachelor". He's right nearly 100% of the time. So, if you dig reality TV and don't want your favorite show spoiled, stay away from this site.
Those are some of my favorite sites. I'd love to hear about yours. You can share them on our FB page.
I began talking quotes, and so I will end with the same.
Today....."No one buys and sends greeting cards anymore. They're dead," said the customer who just purchased $56.00 worth of cards. Truth.
