Star Wars for Sale

Ann Roosenboom of Guelph, Ontario, is selling her roomful of Star Wars stuff, so you might want to take a look.

It’s quite the collection. She has vintage Kenner toys from the late ’70s, and newer stuff, too. One highlight, for me, is a vintage AT-AT walker toy; sale price, $240 (Canadian dollars). I wanted one of those as a kid but never managed to convince Mom, but that was okay, because I got a new stick that Christmas.

Rosenboom told a very cool and highly poetic writer for the Guelph Mercury that she and her husband want to move to a smaller home, so she just doesn’t have room for her Star Wars stuff … and, besides, she hasn’t added to the collection in years.

Also, she points out, she’s a pretty normal 52-year-old suburban mom, not your stereotypical middle-aged basement-dwelling toy-collecting geek (like, for example, me).

“I am from this planet,” Mrs. Roosenboom told the Mercury. “I don’t wear tinfoil on my head to keep ‘them’ from attacking my brainwaves.”

See? I am the only one.

Anyway, you can email Mrs. Roosenboom at starwarsfangirl@rogers.com if you want to ask her about buying some of her stuff.

And here’s the original article (with the killer headline “Are these the droids you’re looking for?”)

If You Think I Talk About Star Trek Too Much …

I have a confession to make: I’m the fifth Cylon. Don’t tell anyone.
BSG and Lost come back in January. You may not see me for a bit.

Writing Good, Part 5

I have a few thoughts on punctuation.

Punctuation’s a tricky thing, and can actually affect things in a big way. You may have heard the story of the million-dollar comma, and there are many, many more like that.

I deal with punctuation as part of my work as a newspaper editor. I work in a room full of language professionals, people with diplomas and degrees (and in one case, a Master’s) who can’t figure out the difference between a hyphen and a dash, a comma and a semi-colon.

This is not to say that I’m any kind of expert. Just browse through any of the Weather Stations and you’ll find me making all kinds of errors. I’m particularly prone, for instance, to forgetting the period at the end of a sentence

But here are some easy quick fixes for you. Let’s start with the apostrophe. This really messes people up. You probably think you don’t have to add an extra s to the end of a noun if it ends in s. Let’s go with the city of Memphis, home of The King: You may think it’s proper to write “Memphis’ music scene is thriving,” but you would be wrong. It’s actually “Memphis’s music scene is thriving.”

Why? Because you pronounce the apostrophized s. Say it out loud. You’re saying “Memphis-es,” right? So it takes an extra s.

But if you aren’t pronouncing the extra s, you don’t add it: “New Orleans’ music scene is still thriving.” See how that works? It can be tricky. But I subscribe to the idea of speaking what you write aloud (unless you’re, like, on a bus or something) to see how it flows. This is crucial.

I’ll toss one more at you tonight. It has to do with semi-colons. You may have noticed that I’m a big semi-colon user; this is because I like longer sentences but prefer a mid-sentence break that goes beyond the comma. See how that worked right there? Again, this comes from speaking sentences aloud.

When I was a reporter, I was often told my copy flowed better than other reporters. My only actual problem was issues of fact, but that’s another story. But I think people said that because I wrote like a conversation, and still do. I want my copy to read like I’m saying it to you aloud (unlike Weather Station 3, where I sound like a third-string CBC rookie with a pillowcase over his head).

I’ve always thought that’s the secret to smooth writing. The punctuation will come later.