There are always those times when we self-censor because it's just not polite to say the first thing that comes to your mind when someone does or says something worthy of scorn.
For Southerners, especially, telling someone off doesn't square with the genteel ideal. Sometimes, though, it has to come out one way or the other. For me, it's usually in writing that never sees the light of day, even on my blog, or in the occasional rant to my mom or other equally understanding person.
Regular readers notice that I occasionally will answer readers' concerns in the column, usually by name unless they've specifically asked that a name not be used. This week I won't use names, but it will be for those comments I've kept myself from saying. (Inserting tongue into cheek ...)
Wow. Just wow.
Though your name is vaguely familiar, I can't say I recall any letters from you previously, and an archive search back to 1995 showed no letters by you have been printed. Which makes your rambling note accompanying your not-crazy letter all the more puzzling.
I'll admit to being a fool more times than I can count, and would never hold myself as the ultimate authority on anything except perhaps my cat's weirdness, so I'm at a loss on the implication that I'm anything approaching high-and-mighty.
As for the need for us to have some way to contact you about your letter, which is what apparently got your knickers in a twist, that's a long-standing rule shared by many newspapers to ensure that that person actually wrote the letter (yes, people do sometimes write letters claiming to be someone else). Unless you want someone to perhaps have something published under your name that might make you look like a fool.
Now, if you'd like to resubmit your letter without insulting us here on the Voices page, please feel free. And if you really want to tell my mama on me, go ahead. Don't mind the laughter.
What a surprise it was for me to learn that I'm doing the bidding of the Democratic National Committee. They really need to get busy on my compensation.
I understand you're upset that we haven't printed many of your letters lately, but I'm shocked--shocked, I tell you--to learn we haven't published anything containing criticism of Barack Obama or Nancy Pelosi or Mark Pryor.
Oh, wait, except we have--lots of it. Never mind.
It occurs to me there are those who believe politics are why letters are rejected, when it's really the result of things such as appropriateness for a family newspaper or fact-checking, as it was in your case. While the talking points put forward by the parties are nice and pithy, they often play fast and loose (very loose) with the truth. Those who use those talking points have reason to fear fact-checks.
Now, if you want to attribute, in your letter, untrue statements to the person who said them (and that are documented), have at it. At least then everyone will know where you get your information, true or not, which is actually more telling.
I understand I can get a little overzealous at times when trying to ensure that readers can discern opinion from fact (which unfortunately happens more than we'd like). And yes, I'm very sorry if anyone misunderstood the point of your letter as I apparently did.
However, to further ensure that tired editors understand your point, I might suggest the use of wife-check (or in the absence of that, friend-check). We are the worst editors of our own writing--I'm speaking from experience here--so it's always a good idea to have someone else read what you wrote to make sure it is clear. Wife-check has saved countless husbands from making fools of themselves--when it's used.
There should be an app for that.
Okay, I'll be serious for a moment, and answer the lovely Shirley Roe's question about semicolons. And since I'm using her name, you can be assured that no teasing, gentle or otherwise, is involved.
Semicolons tend to be misused most in two instances that I've noticed: instead of a colon to introduce a series or statement, and instead of commas.
Semicolons aren't that much of an enigma, but a lot of people avoid them because they're not sure how they're to be used; that's not a bad idea, really, since most writing gets along perfectly fine without them. And in that sentence, I demonstrated one of their uses, which is to connect closely related sentences.
They can also be used to link items in a complicated list (one that includes internal commas): "She is survived by her daughter, June, of Palm Springs, Calif.; and her son, Matt, of Dayton, Ark."
When I was a city desk clerk, one of my responsibilities was occasionally dealing with obituaries, and in that capacity (and later on the copy desk), I saw a lot of misuse of the semicolon as a proxy for colons and commas. That had a lot to do with the twitching I sometimes experience today when I see such errors.
Really, the easiest rule for use of a semicolon (and most other punctuation) I could advise is this: If you're not sure how to use it, don't. That should keep more copy editors from twitching so much they risk spontaneous combustion.
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Assistant Editor Brenda Looper is editor of the Voices page. Read her blog at blooper0223.wordpress.com.
Editorial on 07/02/2014