Re: Re Is it a M$ world?

[Carl Distefano cld@xxxxxxxx]

Reply to note from Harry Binswanger  Sun, 30 Oct
2005 00:18:43 -0400

Hmmm, I'm no copy editor, but I don't like parens in dialogue. Is
it the character speaking, or is the narrator interjecting comments
on what the character is saying? Square brackets are worse
(character? narrator? publisher?), and visually ugly.

As a lawyer, I'd rewrite it something like this:

Oh everyone was there:
1.0  The Lord Chancellor's Party
   1.1 the Lord Chancellor;
   1.2 his mother-in-law, the Dowager Duchess of Cumberland;

2.0  Admiral Sir Richard Founder's Party
   2.1 The Admiral and
						2.2 his lady, and
      2.2.1 her sister, the Countess of Errol, and
      2.2.2 her nephew the MP for Bristol.

The headings in the foregoing sentence (the "Sentence") (a) are for
convenience of reference only, (b) are not part of the Sentence, and
(c) shall not be relied upon to resolve any alleged or actual
ambiguity in the Sentence. The Sentence (as limited by the
foregoing sentence) constitutes the whole Sentence, and no
modification thereof shall be valid unless in writing signed by the
character, the narrator, the author, the editor, and the publisher.
If any part of the Sentence shall be determined by a court of
competent jurisdiction to be factually incorrect or otherwise
invalid, such determination shall not affect the factual correctness
or other validity of the other parts of the Sentence, which other
parts shall be deemed to be the Sentence. Any violation of the
foregoing shall be punishable by a sentence even longer than the
Sentence.

Now that, as we like to say in the trade, sings.

--
Carl Distefano
cld@xxxxxxxx