“I mean, full stops are quite important, aren't they? Yet by contrast to the versatile apostrophe, they are stolid little chaps, to say the least. In fact one might dare to say that while the full stop is the lumpen male of the punctuation world (do one job at a time; do it well; forget about it instantly), the apostrophe is the frantically multi-tasking female, dotting hither and yon, and succumbing to burn-out from all the thankless effort.” WorldWellsMeanLittlesImportantFactsMightJobsForgetEffortFemaleMalesDareContrastPunctuationBurn OutChapsVersatileThanklessMulti TaskingSuccumbing Author:Lynne Truss
“What the semicolon's anxious supporters fret about is the tendency of contemporary writers to use a dash instead of a semicolon and thus precipitate the end of the world. Are they being alarmist?” WorldEndsUseContemporaryTendenciesAnxiousSupporterEnd Of The WorldEnglish LanguageAlarmists Author:Lynne Truss
“The rule is: the word 'it's' (with apostrophe) stands for 'it is' or 'it has'. If the word does not stand for 'it is' or 'it has' then what you require is 'its'. This is extremely easy to grasp. Getting your itses mixed up is the greatest solecism in the world of punctuation. No matter that you have a PhD and have read all of Henry James twice. If you still persist in writing, 'Good food at it's best', you deserve to be struck by lightning, hacked up on the spot and buried in an unmarked grave.” IfsWorldWritingDoeStillsMatterEasyDeserveGravesSpotsBuriedLightningPersistGood FoodPunctuationHackedPhds Author:Lynne Truss
“Many aspects of our screen-bound lives are bad for our social skills simply because we get accustomed to controlling the information that comes in, managing our relationships electronically, deleting stuff that doesn't interest us. We edit the world; we select from menus; we pick and choose; our social 'group' focuses on us and disintegrates without us. This makes it rather confusing for us when we step outdoors and discover that other people's behaviour can't be deleted with a simple one-stroke command or dragged to the trash icon.” PeopleWorldSocialStuffInterestSimpleStepsGroupsInformationSkillsPicksAspectBoundsScreensCommandOur RelationshipBehaviourStrokesAccustomedConfusingTrashSelectIconsEditsMenusSocial SkillsSocial GroupsDeleting Author:Lynne Truss
“...when a phone call competes for attention with a real-world conversation, it wins. Everyone knows the distinctive high-and-dry feeling of being abandoned for a phone call, and of having to compensate - with quite elaborate behaviours = for the sudden half-disappearance of the person we were just speaking to. 'Go ahead!' we say. 'Don't mind us! Oh look, here's a magazine I can read!' When the call is over, other rituals come into play, to minimise the disruption caused and to restore good feeling.” KnowsWorldMindLooksPersonsI CanRealPlayFeelingsWinningAttentionHalfConversationPhonesMagazinesDryRitualReal WorldAbandonedBehaviourPhone CallsDisruptionDistinctiveDisappearanceGood FeelingI Can Read Author:Lynne Truss
“The advent of the mobile phone was a disaster. We are forced to listen, open-mouthed, to other people's intimate conversations. Increasingly, we are all in our virtual bubbles when we are out in public, whether we are texting, listening to iPods, reading or just staring dangerously at other people.” PeopleWorldAmericaReadingModernListeningConversationPhonesDisasterStaringIntimateBubblesModern WorldMobileIpodsAdventTextingMobile PhonesIntimate Conversation Author:Lynne Truss
“My favorite thing in the world is a quiz show, 'University Challenge,' so you can see what kind of sad person I am.” WorldKindPersonsShowsChallengesUniversityMy FavoriteFavorites ThingsQuizQuiz ShowSad Person Author:Lynne Truss
“In my worst moments, I think the biggest effect of 'Eats, Shoots & Leaves' was to kill the happiness of people who had previously skipped through life, unaware of all the atrocities lurking in the world around them.” PeopleThinkingWorldMomentsWorstEffectsAtrocitiesLurkingWorst Moments Author:Lynne Truss
“Oh, the illusion of choice in the modern world - don't get me started. But don't you agree that the Internet has softened our brains and made us forget that 'choice' used to mean something different from selecting options from menus?” WorldMeanMadeDifferentUsedChoicesForgetBrainModernInternetIllusionAgreeModern WorldMenusIllusion Of Choice Author:Lynne Truss
