Coming up in Pipeline for 21 Oct 2008

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

* If I ran a comics auction site. . .

* A digital comics business idea that would never work, but would be really cool!

* An Open Letter to Marvel with a TPB request

* Quoting "Playboy" for interview tips. Don't worry - it's perfectly safe for work, and gleamed from a Dark Horse book

* 5 Things I Learned About Writing from Pipeline

And maybe one or two small things more.

-Augie

[sinned2007]

The news about the Alan Davis / Captain Britain Omnibus made my day!

[apoehler]

Fewer and fewer people are teaching the "two spaces" thing anymore, it's a relic of typewriters and typesetting at this point. One space will be the universal standard within fifty years, and people will ask "Why did people used to put two spaces after sentences!?"

Of course, they'll just end the sentence with an interrobang.

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

Of course, they'll just end the sentence with an interrobang.

What?!?

-Augie, couldn't help himself

[torippu]

I still use two spaces after a period...does this mean that I am old?

[kevhines]

This was my favorite pipeline in ages.

[uthor]

There's arguements both ways for the serial comma:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_comma

Style guides supporting mandatory use
The United States Government Printing Office's Style Manual
Chicago Manual of Style
The American Medical Association Manual of Style
The Elements of Style
The Oxford Style Manual
The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers
Garner's American Usage
Most college writing handbooks in the U.S. also advocate use of the serial comma

Style guides opposing mandatory use
The Times style manual
The New York Times stylebook
The Economist style manual
The AP Stylebook
The Australian Government Publishing Service's Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers
The Guardian Style Guide
University of Oxford Writing and Style Guide

Wikipedia: for when you need too much information.

Personally, I use the serial comma as it seems more percise. Plus, that's how they taught me in school and old habits die hard (like the double spacing after sentences).

[dancj]

Personally I always use the double-space after a full-stop, but I gather that it is now considered old-fashioned.

That serial comma thing though is something I've never heard of before. I was always taught at school to never put a comma before an "and". Maybe it's a British/American difference. That version with the extra comma looks awful to me.

Also can anyone shed any light on this recent trend towards dropping the "and" when saying numbers, so some people say "One hundred fifty" instead of "One hundred and fifty"? I'm clinging onto hope that this is another British/American thing and that I can still carry one using the "and" and be correct to do so.

[BTimony]

‽‽‽‽‽‽‽‽‽‽‽‽‽‽‽‽‽‽‽‽‽‽‽‽‽

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

Dan - I was always taught that, when saying a number, the "and" represents a decimal place. So "one hundred and fifty" is really 100.50. Nobody I know thinks about it too much, though. Most people I hear use the "and." It's the way people write out checks. They fill in the line in front of "dollars" to say something like "one thousand, three hundred, and twenty-right dollars and 00/100 dollars" makes no sense to me. I will cop to being overly sensitive on this one. I don't fight it.

I stand by my opinion on the serial comma, however. That's the mathemetician in me.

BTimony - YES! You da man.

-Augie

[torippu]

Must be a British/American thing - I don't use "and" when saying a number because I was told at an early age that this was incorrect. As for the reasoning, I can't remember.

[dancj]

Dan - I was always taught that, when saying a number, the "and" represents a decimal place.
Yeah - I heard that for the first time a few months ago - but I cling on to my British/American theory. (I have that theory for the Word Balloon/Speech Bubble debate too)

- Ooh I've just found back-up on line (I know it's only Wikipedia, but it's the best I've got).

This page (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/seven_hundred_and_fifty) shows the alternative spellings of 750 as being:

(UK) seven hundred and fifty
(US) seven hundred fifty (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/seven_hundred_fifty)