How do we feel about "superfluous" "quotation" "marks?"

[asthmaticeog]

I "hate" them - they get on my "fucking" nerves.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

1. "Yes"

"The" "Bastards"

[lpbk2713]

6. I know exactly what you mean......

Kind of like using italics a little bit more than is absolutely necessary.

[calico1]

2. "Really?"

:crazy:

[wtmusic]

3. I always see them on signs

Sale This Weekend "Come Early" -- WTF?

[NV Whino]

4. I think they are appropriate

to indicate sarcasm. What is easliy portrayed with tone of voice is not so easy with the written word. Quotation marks serve to indicate that you are writing the word in a sarcastic manner.

[Richardo]

7. Indicate irony or sarcasm - right. But idiots use them as "emphasis"...

As in: Sale! Today "ONLY"!! :eyes:

Morans. :dunce:

[NV Whino]

17. You fortgot to put quotes around "moran."

;)

[da_chimperor]

5. "Oh" "My" "God"

That's quite "irritating". ":evilgrin:"

[eyesroll]

8. Sign at grocery store:

Vine Ripe Tomatoe's
Their "Sweet" and "Juicy" -- "New" Crop


???

[Richardo]

10. I see Vice President Quayle is gainfully employed.

Good to know! :thumbsup:

[calico1]

14. Yes, that is definitely incorrect usage.

If I saw a sign next to some fruit that said "sweet and juicy" and "new" crop I would think the opposite were true since you would do just that if you were trying to be sarcastic. Some people just get too carried away and don't know when to stop. Its just like people who use caps or bold print in an e-mail to emphasize and then end up bolding almost the whole e-mail. Just stupid.

[asthmaticeog]

18. Speaking of grocery stores

"12 Items or Less" gets my blood boiling. It's "FEWER," dammit.

I often drive out of my way to go to the one market on the near west side whose express lane signs read "12 Items or Fewer." For that reason. I can be that big of a pedant sometimes.

Edit: removal of superfluous hyphen. See? Big pedant.

[eyesroll]

22. Ah. Yes.

Answering a question about the differences between less, less than, fewer and under got me this job.

[stellanoir]

9. they don't bother me anywhere near as much as. . .

when people use the word "quote" as a noun. It's "quotation" DAMN IT!

Arghhhhhhhhhh !!!

[BJ]

11. "???" " !!!! " "!" "?"

[flamingyouth]

12. They're "sarcastic" and even "bitchy"

I used to volunteer with this really "annoying" woman who would insist upon "highlighting" words using "quotations." It drove me "nuts!"

[pagerbear]

13. They fucking piss me off!

[tsakshaug]

15. "hot" dog's anyone?

[BurtWorm]

16. You mean "scare" quotes?

I "like" them. A "lot." Especially when I'm kicking the shit out of a winger in an "argument."

PS: Here's an example of what I mean, although it wasn't a winger I was arguing with in this case, but someon ewho called himself a panentheist. I was a member of the Usenet group alt.atheism for a while, where I went by my Usenet name xofpi, for what it's worth. So here's a snippet of a snarky argument we were having. To explain what he meant by panentheism, he has just posted: "God, without me, could not exist, and vice versa." So I responded:


"God, without me, could not exist, and vice versa." That sounds like solipsism to me, especially when you equate God and reality-itself. I know it must not be, somehow. You must not mean the same thing I would mean when you say "I" and "me," because if you did, you would be careful not to imply that God=Reality, who did-not-because-could-not exist before the "birthday" of the "person" (for lack of a better term) whom "your" "parents" "parented," has existed ever since. This "me" you're talking about must be some eternal essence, identical to God's, that only appears to have been assigned to your body and epiphenomenal consciousness for this time. Is that right?

[arwalden]

20. Oh Brother! That Was A Mouthful... So... "What" was his "response"?

Remind "me" not to get "in" an argument with "you"... I'm afraid that "I" wouldn't be able to "keep" up.

-- Allen

[BurtWorm]

23. I feel singed just by all the scare quotes in your response!

See how "effective" they are?

By the way, my adversary skipped over responding to those "particular" questions. Maybe he realized I was being "sarcastic." :eyes:

[RandomKoolzip]

19. Only three writers can get away with the use of excessive "quotes," IMO:

Byron Coley, Michael J. Nelson (of MST 3k fame) and Richard Meltzer.

[asthmaticeog]

21. The only superfluous thing Coley does

is heap praise on Half Japanese. Yeah, they're good, but jeez, dude...

[RandomKoolzip]

25. So I take it you've seen "The Band that Would be King," then?

Having read Forced Exposure since I was a wee lad, I always wondered what Byron Coley looked like....I never expected him to be rocking a soul patch and a severe hair part.

Well, 1/2 Jap is also one of my favorite bands, and really, there was nothing like them when they first came out...1/2 Jap today and Jad Fair today, I can take or leave, but those first few 1/2 Jap recs were genius. I'm sure during one of Coley's many acid journeys, he mind-melded with Jad Fair and found that his secret purpose in life was to "spread the gospel."

[asthmaticeog]

26. Agreed.

I saw Half Jap perform about 8 or 10 years ago and was underwhelmed. It was probably foolish to have expected them to keep up the sloppy savant genius thing when they'd had so many years to learn to play by then. It was just quirky generic indie-pop by then.

[arwalden]

24. This "seems" to be a "common" writing "style" among "many" former DUers...

... who have been "banned".

Or it could "just" be my "imagination."

-- "Allen"

[Susang]

27. The worst superfluous quotation marks

Are those made with a gesture. You know, when someone is speaking and uses their hands to make the quotation symbol with their fingers as they say a certain word. Those people need to be thrashed with a thousand copies of Strunk and White. :mad:

[asthmaticeog]

28. Auuuuggh! Air quotes!

[Susang]

29. The most evil of all quotes

They should be obliterated from the face of the earth! :nuke:

[eyesroll]

30. Verbal quotes, too.

"Well, I was talking to my ex-boyfriend, he told me, in no uncertain terms, to quote unquote, go take a 50-foot bungee jump with a 100-foot bungee cord, what's up with that?"

[KurtNYC]

31. And how about saying the word "quote"

out loud (when not giving dictation).

And they never say "end quote"

edit: just saw the post above. Quote unquote right next to each other -- forgot about that one (or maybe I repressed it since it is so disturbing).

[redqueen]

32. I dislike them

what really gets on my nerves, though, is the resistance to acknowledging the difference between single and double quotes. Single is for emphasis. Double is for quotes only.