Klarinet Archive - Posting 000332.txt from 2000/12

From: "Kevin Fay (LCA)" <kevinfay@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] The Apostrophe's War
Date: Wed, 6 Dec 2000 13:12:25 -0500

Gavin Rebetzke responded to my question, "[f]or a truly senseless debate,
how about whether the
punctuation is to be placed in or out of the 'quotation mark?'[sic] (We had
a meeting on that
one, too . . . )"!

<<<I hope they put beer on for your discussion on this topic as well! Are
you prepared to reveal the decision of the editorial board in respect of the
"1960's" versus "1960s" debate?>>>

I am fully prepared to disclose the august decision of the editorial board
-- I have no desire to "hide the ball." Unfortunately, I have absolutely no
recollection of how it actually came out, other than adopting the sensible
policy to do them all the same way. Most of the beer-drinking editors
(i.e., the ones not flinging texts at each other) didn't see that a decision
either way would hurt circulation much. We became more emotional when the
beer ran out.

The situation does touch on the other string on dealing with conflicting
authorities, though. Like Fowler's, most texts deplore the use of the
excess apostrophe in this instance. The contrary authority for us, however,
the "A Uniform System of Citation" -- the "Blue Book," a talisman in legal
publishing. It's a volume of citation rules put together jointly by the
editorial boards of the law reviews from Harvard, Columbia and a couple of
other snooty schools whose identity escapes me. It is therefore Terribly
Important Scholarship, which is why a little school like Buffalo going
against the grain would be an act of apostasy, even if correct.

Unfortunately, the Blue Book is also often wrong, which is why it's on its
twentieth edition or so. I have not looked at one in at least ten years.

What should the kid do about the plastic reeds? The simplest alternative
has already been suggested -- use a cane reed in band. Most of us keep more
than one reed in the case anyway. Some battles just are not worth fighting.
You don't have to win every battle to win the war.

When I was in junior high (about the time of the last Ice Age) I had a band
director who insisted that everyone use really hard reeds. I could have
made a stink about it, I suppose, but it was a relatively easy matter to
take a couple of Vandoren 5s at the time and sand them down so the kid could
play them just fine. When the director saw the number 5 on the reed, he
automatically gave me an A+ (I told you he wasn't very bright) and the reeds
worked fine.

kjf

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe from Klarinet, e-mail: klarinet-unsubscribe@-----.org
Subscribe to the Digest: klarinet-digest-subscribe@-----.org
Additional commands: klarinet-help@-----.org
Other problems: klarinet-owner@-----.org