Signature tags

[Luckmeister]

I came up with some signature tags someone might want to use -- some I remember seeing somewhere and a couple I just made up. Does anyone have any favorites to contribute they're not saving for themselves?

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"I vow to eliminate procrastination from my life -- starting next week."

"I hate indecision -- well maybe not hate, but I don't like it -- well sometimes it's okay -- maybe."

"Why is it people ask dumb rhetorical questions?"

"I've told you a million times, don't exaggerate." (I've seen this one a trillion times.)

"Seeing all the alcoholics in our society is enough to drive one to drink."

"I hate it when people add unnecessary neverending repetitive redundant reiterative additional unneeded adjectives to what they're saying."

"How can we make the world better? Kill all those who believe violence solves anything."

"I believe that being a skeptic frees me from needing beliefs."

(And a serious one that should be included in almost every ATM or CT response.)
"Never mind what you believe -- I'd like to hear what you know, and how you know it."

[Dragon Star]

If your making direct quotes, you need to give credit to someone. Drop the quote into Google and find an origin.

"It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you've got"~ Sheryl Crow, Soak up the Sun.

[Rystefn K'ryll]

"I'm a member of the AAAAAAA: Association of All Americans Against the Abundant Abuse of Acronyms"

[Luckmeister]

If your making direct quotes, you need to give credit to someone. Drop the quote into Google and find an origin.

Actually none of them were direct quotes. Some were paraphrasing of something I had heard before. I just used the quotes to separate them from my other comments. Did I violate a forum rule by using quotes in that manner?

Luckmeister

[Dragon Star]

Welcome to the forum Rystefn K'ryll.

[Dragon Star]

Actually none of them were direct quotes. Some were paraphrasing of something I had heard before. I just used the quotes to separate them from my other comments. Did I violate a forum rule by using quotes in that manner?

Luckmeister

Not rules, just good manners. I'm kidding, just make not of it next time.

I expect to see some good Einstein quotes soon...If not I will put some up.

EDIT:

4. Copyright

Do not post copyrighted material here. This is very serious. It is within the law to post small, relevant quotes, but not whole passages from newspapers, magazines, books, etc. If you do, the post will be deleted, and you will be warned. Do it twice and you will be banned. If you want to reference material somewhere else on the web, give a brief summary and link to the rest. People can go take a look at what you're talking about and then return to discuss it further.

Your clear.

[yuzuha]

There are 10 types of people in this world. Those who understand binary and those who don't.

[Luckmeister]

Not rules, just good manners. I'm kidding, just make not of it next time.

I expect to see some good Einstein quotes soon...If not I will put some up.

EDIT:



Your clear.

I appreciate your calling attention to this because I was actually misusing punctuation usage rules of English. Since I wasn't directly quoting, I shouldn't have used quotation marks, but maybe brackets or something. Thanks.

Luckmeister

[Dragon Star]

"Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider." ~Harold Bloom

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on. ~Sir Winston Churchill

Everything is funny as long as it is happening to somebody else. ~Will Rogers

Lack of will power has caused more failure than lack of intelligence or ability. ~Flower A. Newhouse

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. ~Albert Einstein

Whether you think that you can, or that you can't, you are usually right. ~Henry Ford

You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. ~Plato

[Gillianren]

I appreciate your calling attention to this because I was actually misusing punctuation usage rules of English. Since I wasn't directly quoting, I shouldn't have used quotation marks, but maybe brackets or something. Thanks.

If you're using it as "this is what I'm saying," you still use quotation marks. And no, you shouldn't've used brackets.

[Rystefn K'ryll]

There are three types of people in the world: those who can count, and those who can't.

[AGN Fuel]

There are three types of people in the world: those who can count, and those who can't.

There are two types of people in the world - those that divide everything into two types, and those that don't.

[Dragon Star]

If you're using it as "this is what I'm saying," you still use quotation marks. And no, you shouldn't've used brackets.

When it comes to this kind of thing, your about the last person I will argue with, but wouldn't saying that mean that everything I put into my own words be quoted? I thought the point behind quotes was to acknowledge what another person, or you have said at a earlier date, but not you in the present time?

[Gillianren]

When it comes to this kind of thing, your about the last person I will argue with, but wouldn't saying that mean that everything I put into my own words be quoted? I thought the point behind quotes was to acknowledge what another person, or you have said at a earlier date, but not you in the present time?

But you're (note spelling!) using it as a thing to be quoted, not just talking.

[Dragon Star]

shouldn't've

No room to talk in this thread.

[Luckmeister]

Hoo boy!! Looks like I opened up a bit of a "can o' worms" with the quotation marks. I actually worked for a decade as a writer and editor, so I got out my old GPO Style Manual and looked up the quotation rules. Dragon Star was right when he said that I broke no rules except possibly one of manners, meaning that, if my quotes were direct, I should have credited them. They weren't, so I hadn't, and then he acknowledged that. His concern was one that is common for this forum -- if you quote someone, list the source.

Quotes can be used as emphasis, or just to separate a passage for clarity (as I was doing). The Style Manual rules are really pretty loose on their use.

And about "shouldn't've"? Wow, that's a good one. I couldn't find anything in the manual that covered double contractions. It looks a little weird but hey, my rule of thumb in such a case was always that if it was conversationally readable that way, use it.

Luckmeister

[Gillianren]

Quotes can be used as emphasis, or just to separate a passage for clarity (as I was doing). The Style Manual rules are really pretty loose on their use.

Your style manual permits quotation marks for emphasis? Get a new style manual, man--that's wrong. Italics, yes. Bold, yes. Caps, yes. Underlining, yes. But not emphasis; never emphasis.

And about "shouldn't've"? Wow, that's a good one. I couldn't find anything in the manual that covered double contractions. It looks a little weird but hey, my rule of thumb in such a case was always that if it was conversationally readable that way, use it.

People use it in speech all the time. What most people use in writing is "shouldn't of," and that's clearly wrong, because that's not what you mean. What you are saying is "shouldn't have," thus "shouldn't've."

[Luckmeister]

Your style manual permits quotation marks for emphasis? Get a new style manual, man--that's wrong. Italics, yes. Bold, yes. Caps, yes. Underlining, yes. But not emphasis; never emphasis.

Gillian, I bow to your more current knowledge of the Style Manual, which does not mention emphasis in the online copy. Mine did, but with the added comment that its usage in that regard should be kept to a minimum. Guess it's time to get rid of my old copy. Thanks for the clarification.

Luckmeister

[Jens]

Your style manual permits quotation marks for emphasis? Get a new style manual, man--that's wrong. Italics, yes. Bold, yes. Caps, yes. Underlining, yes. But not emphasis; never emphasis.

There are situations where italics are unavailable. Of course, typewriters are one situation, which is why those of us who great up before MS Word were always told to underline. And also, newspapers usually don't use italics or underlining as a matter of style. Well, they may now, but I'm pretty sure they didn't use to, probably because of the weight and expense of having sets of italic letters. So newspapers may in some cases use quotations for emphasis, though I haven't checked this.

[Gillianren]

There are situations where italics are unavailable. Of course, typewriters are one situation, which is why those of us who great up before MS Word were always told to underline. And also, newspapers usually don't use italics or underlining as a matter of style. Well, they may now, but I'm pretty sure they didn't use to, probably because of the weight and expense of having sets of italic letters. So newspapers may in some cases use quotations for emphasis, though I haven't checked this.

If they do, they are bad newspapers. Quotation marks for emphasis are one of the banes of modern existance. (People who don't care about a Gillian Grammar Rant, tune out now.)

Quotation marks serve two purposes. They either mark that you are, in fact, quoting something--even yourself--or they mark that what you're saying is not necessarily true.

A prime example of this is a teacher who put two things up on her board, which I reproduce exactly--in other words, only her quotation marks.

Ground beef, $1.99 a pound.

Ground "beef," $1.99 a pound.

She then asked her students which one they'd choose, and of course, they chose exactly the wrong one--the ground "beef," stating, incorrectly, that you didn't know for sure the other was real beef. In fact, "beef" marked that way could be anything you just choose to be calling beef.

Most newspapers just don't emphasize at all, stylistically. If I recall AP style correctly (which I probably don't, as it was always pretty jarring to me when I worked on a newspaper), you don't even italicize book or movie titles. Actually, using too many emphasis marks (which I do!) is considered a stylistic failing even in fiction or creative nonfiction. In theory, one ought to be able to go quite some time without using italics, provided they don't ever talk about books, TV, or movies.

[Swift]

Early on in my stay at the BA forum, I used
When all is said and done, all will be said and nothing will be done

I have also been fond of:
"Stupidity got us into this mess, why can't stupidity get us out" - Will Rogers
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

[Māori]

The Theory of Relativity doesn’t make you a relative of mine.

I don't remember where I found my signature tag. I thought it was funny, so I borrowed it.

It went well with my avatar, too.

[SeanF]

Quotation marks serve two purposes. They either mark that you are, in fact, quoting something--even yourself--or they mark that what you're saying is not necessarily true.

Hmm. In your sig, you have:

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

Wouldn't the single quotes around "Hey...all." constitute a third use? I mean, when you say they "mark that you are, in fact, quoting something," that kind of implies that they wouldn't be used when you're writing something that might have been (or might be) said, but only something that actually was said. That actually goes back to the OP, in which Luckmeister correctly used quotes even though he was not, in fact, quoting something.

As for "shouldn't've" we had a similar discussion on FWIS a while back about "I'd've" as a contraction for "I would have." Double contractions are rare, but not unknown.

(Now, what about the usage of quotes in that last paragraph? Another distinct use? )

[mickal555]

I love mine

[Luckmeister]

I'm going to return to my OP topic for one more comment before I become too punctuation-paranoid to post at all.

My favorite BAUT Sig since I began lurking is Van Rijn's Invisible Elf remark. I was actively reading the thread when he said that to someone, followed by someone else suggesting he make it his Sig (which he then did).

The reason I like it so much is that some ATM and CT newbies take it literally (completely missing his point) and comment on it as though he were serious.

For anyone new enough here to not be familiar with it, the full Sig is:

"I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?"

Okay, now I expect someone to correct me, saying that Van Rijn is actually a "she".

Luckmeister

[Gillianren]

Hmm. In your sig, you have:

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

Wouldn't the single quotes around "Hey...all." constitute a third use? I mean, when you say they "mark that you are, in fact, quoting something," that kind of implies that they wouldn't be used when you're writing something that might have been (or might be) said, but only something that actually was said. That actually goes back to the OP, in which Luckmeister correctly used quotes even though he was not, in fact, quoting something.

It's still part of the first use, because I phrased it badly. They isolate something that's said, be it by you, by someone else, or by a third party, even if they're hypothetical.

As for "shouldn't've" we had a similar discussion on FWIS a while back about "I'd've" as a contraction for "I would have." Double contractions are rare, but not unknown.

(Now, what about the usage of quotes in that last paragraph? Another distinct use? )

Nope. Someone said it; it's part of use one. (Granted, this is also my definition; others may define them differently. However, they will all use them the same way, if they're using them correctly.)

[SeanF]

It's still part of the first use, because I phrased it badly. They isolate something that's said, be it by you, by someone else, or by a third party, even if they're hypothetical.

Nope. Someone said it; it's part of use one. (Granted, this is also my definition; others may define them differently. However, they will all use them the same way, if they're using them correctly.)

That's kind of what I thought. Thanks for the clarification!

[dvb]

I haven't changed mine in a couple of years, though I probably should. Those who don't take reference to it might get the wrong impression.

[Tobin Dax]

I haven't changed mine in a couple of years, though I probably should. Those who don't take reference to it might get the wrong impression.

"I am Miles Edward O'Brien. I am very much alive, and I intend to stay that way."

I think there's enough people around here who would get the quote. (Yes, I know it's obvious I would, but others do, too.) Besides, a number of sigs are things some portion of the posters won't get.

[Gillianren]

My second is actually from Judging Amy, from an episode in which Amy's daughter writes "happy borthday" on her cake.