The big A and big P are disappearing from modern temporal expression, and my eyes aren’t misting over their departure. And that’s little a, little p, with periods, by the way. And while most authorities specify that there are to be no spaces on either side of en dash (unlike the mighty em dash, which prefers no space around it), there appears to be an exception for dates and times. Preferring to save hyphens for hyphenation, I’d argue for the en dash. Typographically speaking, most authorities–the AP Stylebook, The Chicago Manual of Style and countless online sources–accept either a hyphen or an en dash. If a piece of punctuation is to indicate the time between Monday and Friday, is it a hyphen, an en dash or an em dash? The subject springs from a conversation with a client last week about the correct way to punctuate ranges of dates and times. But never-ever-should we use from and a dash. Or we could say that the store is open between 10:00 and 6:00. Alternatively, we could substitute the dash with to or until. The easiest fix would be to delete from, and say simply that the show will air 4:00-5:00 p.m. ![]() “The show will air from 4:00-5:00 p.m.” “The dinner will be held from 6:00-9:00.” “The store will be open from 10-6.” In each of these examples, either something needs to go or something needs to be replaced. Flyers, bulletins, invitations, ads, the posts of the most learned of Facebook friends. Like pollen in springtime, this one appears everywhere. However, there has been one little allergen under my skin for some time finally, it took a recent project for me to slap some Benedryl on it. And those peeking their heads above the soil haven’t seemed worthy of shining the sun upon (says she, ending her sentence acceptably with a preposition). Frankly, this spring hasn’t produced a fertile crop of linguistic irritants. You’ve probably noticed the Word Nymph has been in hibernation lately. The date replied, “Ted Kennedy was shot?” Out of the mouths of bimbos. On a brighter note, I’m reminded of a scene in the 1989 movie, When Harry Met Sally in which Harry is out with a much younger woman. Attempting to make conversation, he asked her where she was when Kennedy was shot. I’m just glad I made it almost to age four oblivious to anyone being killed with a gun. Sadly, gunfire isn’t new to today’s youngsters. Yesterday’s Washington Post ran an article on how parents can help their young children understand clips of Abraham Zapruder’s footage they’d see in the news coverage of today’s 50 th anniversary. I probably wondered if he got a lollipop. So, on November 22, as far as I was concerned, the anguish I witnessed in the neighbor’s back yard, in their living room and, most likely, in my own house was a result of the President of the United States being injected with a needle. Getting a shot was the worst possible thing to come from a doctor visit (next to spending Christmas in the hospital, which is what I did later that year, but that’s a story for another day). ![]() Bunce, I’d ask my mother, “Will I have to get a shot?” I’d tremble with fear and anxiety until the appointment was finished and I was sucking on my good-job-being-brave lollipop. And it was indeed horrific.įor me, “shot” was what the nurse gave you when you were sick. There was only one meaning of “shot” in my young consciousness. I hadn’t grasped what had just happened still, I was upset. Without paying much attention to the TV news story, I probably toddled home for dinner as almost-four-year-olds did in early-1960s suburbia. His older brother came out of the house and yelled, “The president was shot!” My playmate responded with something like “Oh, no that’s terrible!” We all ran inside to find their mother in front of the television, hysterical. It was late afternoon, getting dark, and I was playing on a swing set with a neighbor boy across the street. As young as I was, I can still remember it well. On November 22, 1963, I was three weeks away from turning four years old. Perhaps more important, what did it mean to you at the time? For me, it all boils down to one word. The question of the day: Where were you when President Kennedy was shot?
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