640 ought to be enough for anybody

And now, back to your regularly scheduled programming: today's Wondermark is fabulous.

And in regard to that title... this is post 640 to this blog, in nearly 6 years. Check here for the "source" of my (mis-)quotation.

Today's FoxTrot

Bill Amend quit doing FoxTrot comics on weekdays, but he still draws them for Sundays. Once again, it's a puzzle, and today's was pretty fun. I figured out all of the letters in my head, though two of them I solved by inference and not mathematically (I seriously can't remember how to do differentials, and I didn't bother with the three-digit divisor).

Fox Trot — Gocomics.com

Today's xkcd

With a reference to Calvin & Hobbes... fantastic!

Dr. Fun

I was poking around some of my old bookmarks today and ran across the following comic. It's over 14 years old now, but it's still great (and probably my favorite from the entire run of Doctor Fun).

Dr. Fun - The shocking truth behind zucchini nut bread

Today's Wondermark

Good stuff.

Wondermark #463; In which the Future is Saved

Today's Dilbert

Heuristics!

So…

First of all, I realize that this will be the third time I’ve had a blog post with this title, which might make this one a bit more ironic.

In any case, last night I was thinking about the American tendency to end sentences by trailing off into the conversational ether. For example, when people start a story or thought and then finish with “so…” without really coming to a full stop. I know I'm guilty of this myself at times, and I can’t really point fingers, so…

I’ve decided that the reason for this is mostly laziness. It’s basically saying, “I’ll lay down the tracks for this train of thought, but hopefully you can see where it leads and I won't actually have to articulate the whole thing.” Of course this is mostly done between people who know each other well enough to finish each others’ sentences anyway, but that still doesn’t excuse the ennui that leads to deliberately unfinished thoughts.

After all, when I used to be an editor (the links at the beginning of this post are quite old; that’s no longer my job) I would never let an author end a phrase with an ellipsis. Granted, I mostly dealt with sheet music, but I also edited the accompanying text and I'm passionate about the written word as well.

The “…” punctuation literally stands for an undefined, and possibly unuttered, group of words. For instance, if you wish to quote someone and leave out a portion, you'd use it in the place of what you blanked out: “Mary had a […] lamb.” When it's used deliberately (by that, I mean “not editorially”) at the end of a phrase or sentence, it leaves the intention of the writer completely up to the interpretation of the reader. And since my number-one priority as an editor and a writer is clarity, using an ellipsis in such a way is completely anathema to my preferred style.

That’s not to say that it doesn’t have its uses. In casual conversation (i.e. the spoken word, personal email), I suppose it can be tolerated quite a bit. And, in the hands of a skilled writer, it can be an interesting rhetorical device. However, when the intent is to convey information clearly, three dots in succession just don't belong anywhere.

My thoughts on this matter were perfectly punctuated this morning by the new Wondermark (link below). I don’t know whether to laugh at the absurdity or cry over the reference to modern lack of expression. I’ll probably do both.

Wondermark by David Malki ! - 420: In which One Thing sparks Another, and So On

xkcd in NYT

Randall Munroe, creator of the oft-linked-here online comic xkcd, was interviewed by Noam Cohen of the New York Times. The resulting article appeared online today (link below).

Link By Link - This Is Funny Only if You Know Unix - NYTimes.com

Another comic link

I know I've linked to a lot of Webcomics of late, but when there's a talking musical instrument I'm just compelled to share it...

Wondermark by David Malki ! - 406: In which there's a Problem in the Orchestra

Malki does it again

Today's Wondermark is great... especially, of course, the mouse-over text.

Wondermark by David Malki ! - 402: In which Martin could rethink his Pastimes

Webcomics Extravaganza

First, a pair of strips from Wondermark, the second of which actually made me laugh out loud. Thank goodness I got in earlier than everyone else this morning so nobody could hear me...

Wondermark by David Malki ! - 383: In which a Fortune is sought
Wondermark by David Malki ! - 384: In which are tried Unconventional Methods

And, since xkcd expressly allows republishing, here's today's strip (this one speaks to me very personally, of course):



As usual, check the text you see when you hold your mouse over the images for all three strips.

Today's FoxTrot

Priceless...

FoxTrot for February 17, 2008

xkcd... still great

This is from Monday, but despite being a few days old it's still pretty awesome. As usual, the punchline is actually in the mouseover text.



xkcd - Success

What Should I Eat?

Great Wondermark... don't forget to check the image mouse-over text, which is the best part of this one.

Wondermark by David Malki ! - 310: In which Paul asks a Question of an Eel

Today's 'Bizarro'

Music jokes on the comics page...

Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Bizarro for January 10

The Biggest Understatement in All of Eternity

Today's classic Calvin and Hobbes (originally published November 29, 1995) is disturbingly prophetic. If Watterson thought things were going down the tubes eleven years ago, I imagine he's positively appalled by now. If so, I'm in complete agreement.

goComics.com featuring Calvin and Hobbes