Yummy writing

This post is a nice relaxing one—not too much grammar. It’s not yet time to post an example of outstanding writing, this being post number 168 (not 200), but I have an example of some pretty good writing to share with you. I confess that I’m a bit prejudiced because the writing is about several of my favorite non-writing topics: Local organic food, self-sufficiency, gardening, cooking, and (ahem) my wife. She has a friend, Rachel, who writes a local food blog called Rachel’s Table, which I suggest you go look at. Tell Rachel I sent you. Anyway, we had a few parsnips in our garden that had wintered over, and they came out a week or so ago as my wife prepped the beds for this season. My wife gave her one of the parsnips (and for effect, left it caked with dirt).

Enough preamble; here’s a picture of a parsnip plant:

Parsnip plant. Photo by Valerie George

I can’t resist saying something about the writing on the site. First, I found no actual grammatical mistakes or typos beyond a single missing comma and one tense I would have changed. Those are nit picks. The quality is far superior to a lot of Scientific American blog posts I’ve seen lately. Altogether, it’s a lighthearted, useful, and enjoyable read, and the photos are appropriate and useful.

One other point of interest: The third sentence of her post contains a nice example of hyperbole. Can you spot it?

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To those few of you who read this who aren’t on Google+, here’s an interesting ad I got last week. (I already posted the ad there directly.) It’s good today only, but you can’t beat the price. These people will make you a font out of your handwriting. I bought a font a couple years ago and I’m very satisfied. I think it works best if you print.

On January 23, 2012 Yourfonts.com celebrates National Handwriting Day. Why don’t you join us and make a personal handwriting font for free?

So what is National Handwriting Day?
Well, we are not sure but we think the Writing Instrument Manufacturers Association (WIMA) initiated it to remind us all of the importance and power of handwriting. The date refers to the birthday of John Hancock (January 23, 1737) as he was the first to sign the United States Declaration of Independence.

Even with modern technology we still use our handwriting, and with our online font generation service you can combine the best of both worlds!

Use the special National Handwriting Day coupon that allows you to make as many fonts as you like for FREE! Of course the coupon can only be used during National Handwriting Day; January 23, 2012.

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Remember to use this coupon when you check out:
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This offer is only valid January 23, 2012, but you can already download and fill out the template.
http://www.yourfonts.com/print.html

…but a kindred spirit perhaps. Google+ led me to another site that believes in and “preaches” good grammar. This article is a couple years old, but still good. After all, language changes over time, but not that fast.The site, Copyblogger, is flashier and more commercial than this humble site, but the links on the bottom of the page I link to here look pretty interesting:

5 common mistakes that make you look dumb.

Of course I have to quibble—if you start a sentence with a number, spell it out, don’t use a numeral.

I’m not sure how to turn this blog off, or back on again, so this is my version of going dark to support the cause opposing the SOPA and PIPA bills. I think the bills and their ilk are the product of two special interests: media industries that (IMO wrongly) fear financial loss and loss of control, and “security” interests who want to monitor and control the distribution of opinions in what amounts to limitation of free speech. I happen to think the bill is unworkable, but that’s another issue.

Please don’t read any of the rest of my site today. I hope you feel some sense of loss at not getting your daily dose of curmudgeonly grammar, which is my choice of free speech.

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