Because you read the Union-Tribune, you probably enjoy, as I have for four decades, Greg Evans\u2019 daily comic strip \u201cLuann.\u201d But you may not know that Greg and his wife Bettyhave resided in San Marcos for 45 years, where they continue to receive the paper version of the U-T delivered to their home.<\/p>\n
Greg grew up near Disney Studios in Burbank. He frequently rode his bike to the studio gate, dreaming that Walt would come out and hire a 7-year-old.<\/p>\n
Greg began creating and submitting comic strip ideas to syndicates, collecting an impressive pile of rejection slips. One day, watching his 6-year-old daughter Karen play dress-up-like-a-grown-up, he imagined a strip about a young teen girl.<\/p>\n
Hilarious and wonderfully human \u201cLuann\u201d debuted in 1985 in 78 newspapers. That number has grown to more than 400. In 2003, Greg received the National Cartoonists SocietyReuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of The Year. And Karen? She\u2019s now a real grown-up \u2014 and she writes \u201cLuann.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over time, Greg Evans has checked in with a number of questions about word choice, grammar, and punctuation. Here\u2019s a selection, each one followed by my response:<\/p>\n
Greg writes, \u201cI stumble on (and at age 78 you\u2019d think I\u2019d have plenty else to stumble on) who vs. whom. Fortunately, this is something not a single cartoonist worries about these daysbecause all we write is dialogue and, really, who says \u2018whom\u2019? Not Luann. Not Hagar the Horrible. Okay, maybe\u00a0Mary Worth.\u201d<\/p>\n
My response: More than 70 years ago, Professor Arthur H. Weston composed this ditty:<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to devise an appropriate doomFor those who say who when they ought to say whom.But it\u2019s even more hard to decide what to doWith those who say whom when they ought to say who.<\/p>\n
When I am asked for who the bell tolls, I answer, \u201cIt tolls for whom!\u201d Whom may one day disappear entirely \u2014 but not yet in formal writing.<\/p>\n
If a pronoun can be replaced by he or she, the correct word is who. \u201cI know he did it\u201d = \u201cI know who did it.\u201d If the pronoun can be replaced by him or her, the correct word is whom: \u201cDoyou trust her?\u201d = \u201cWhom do you trust?\u201d Maybe one day the old pronoun whom will kick the grammatical bucket. Until then, why not show this venerable word some respect?<\/p>\n
Greg writes, \u201cI am a member of \u2018The National Cartoonists Society\u2019 (official title), or should we be \u2018The National Cartoonist\u2019s\u2019 or Cartoonists\u2019 Society\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n
My response: A possessive apostrophe informs the reader about who or what possesses who or what: \u201ca dog\u2019s life,\u201d \u201cthe Artemis II crew\u2019s splashdown.\u201d When the possessor is plural,the apostrophe should come after the \u201cs\u201d: \u201ckids\u2019 meal,\u201d \u201cLadies\u2019 Room,\u201d \u201cPresidents\u2019 Day.\u201d Thus, \u201cThe National Cartoonists\u2019 Society\u201d would be the best choice, although I can live with\u201cThe National Cartoonists Society.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greg writes, \u201cI opt to write, \u2018Betty and I read your language column every other Saturday\u2019 because, unlike you, I can never remember how to use semi- and bi-.\u201d<\/p>\n
My response: Semi- means \u201chalf\u201d and bi- means \u201ctwo.\u201d Thus, my column appears in this space semimonthly, every half month, not bimonthly, every two months.<\/p>\n
Greg Evans\u2019 inquiry about semi- and bi- prompts me that it\u2019s about time to talk about time. Has it ever struck you that what we call the First Century B.C. was actually the LastCentury B.C. and that during daylight saving time not a single second of daylight is saved? Have you ever noted how ambiguous are statements that involve time?:<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ll see you next Wednesday.\u201d Is that the Wednesday coming up, or the one after that?
\n\u00a0\u201cThe plane will be in the air momentarily.\u201d Will the plane be in the air in a moment or (horrors!) for a moment?
\n\u00a0\u201cLet\u2019s push up that appointment by two days.\u201d Does that mean that the appointment will now be two days earlier or later?
\n\u00a0The boss and her staff are convening presently.\u201d Does presently mean \u201cnow\u201d or \u201csoon\u201d?
\n\u00a0\u201cThe train arrives at 12 p.m.\u201d Is that noon or midnight?<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
On Saturday, May 9, 2 p.m., and Sunday, May 10, 2 p.m. (Mother\u2019s Day: bring your mom), I\u2019ll be performing \u201cA Feast of Words\u201d at the Trinity Theatre, 1640 Camino del Rio N, Suite 129, in Mission Valley. Tickets cost $25. Every seat is a good seat. For information, call 619 500 4985 or visit trinityttc.org. If you love my loving labors with the English language, you\u2019ll love \u201cA Feast of Words.\u201d<\/p>\n
Please send your questions and comments about language to richardhlederer@gmail.com website: verbivore.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Because you read the Union-Tribune, you probably enjoy, as I have for four decades, Greg Evans\u2019 daily comic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[23,74,76,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-285607","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-local-news","9":"tag-san-diego","10":"tag-san-diego-headlines","11":"tag-san-diego-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}