Sam

Author's details

Name: Samantha Bennett
Date registered: January 26, 2015

Latest posts

  1. Happy Holidays from the Gripes — November 27, 2017
  2. 12 items or FEWER — June 10, 2017
  3. Not quite as slick as Commander Data — May 28, 2017
  4. Love your doggo? Here’s a new set of words to use, thanks to social media — May 3, 2017
  5. WordPlay: Storytelling at Bricolage in downtown Pittsburgh — March 27, 2017

Most commented posts

  1. A new place to find everything Sam — 2 comments

Author's posts listings

Nov 27

Happy Holidays from the Gripes

For some reason, people love to create plurals by adding an apostrophe. Or should I say, “to create plural’s.” (The answer is no. No I should not. And neither should you.) This is especially evident during the festive season, when most of us have some sort of holiday or other to celebrate, and we attempt …

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Jun 10

12 items or FEWER

Supermarket express check-outs used to have limits of “12 items” (or 10 or 8 or whatever) “or less.” It took grammar advocates years to persuade markets to change the signs to read “12 items or fewer,” which is correct. But many, many people still admit that they can’t keep less and fewer straight and don’t …

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May 28

Not quite as slick as Commander Data

If you ever watched any of the “Next Generation” incarnation of the Star Trek franchise, you may remember that Data was an amazingly sophisticated  android who was always yearning to feel human emotions. Occasionally, he would be put in a situation where he would try really hard to tell jokes, be a parent, or have a …

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May 03

Love your doggo? Here’s a new set of words to use, thanks to social media

The language is changing all the time, and while that’s annoying to purists and traditionalists (me, sometimes), it’s also tremendously entertaining and delightful to fans (me, the rest of the time). New coinages perfectly suited to a moment, situation, or social group may or may not stand the test of time (gag me with a …

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Mar 27

WordPlay: Storytelling at Bricolage in downtown Pittsburgh

Stories are how we make sense of our own lives and of the world. Come hear my story, about my late mother, at @WordPlay on March 31 and April 1. If you’re a fan of Midnight Radio, you already know Bricolage; the WordPlay series lets you witness live storytelling set to a DJ soundtrack, on Bricolage”s downtown Pittsburgh …

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Mar 18

“An exercise in high-stakes grammar pedantry that could cost … $10 million”

It’s all very well saying we live in a post-punctuation era, and archaic little speckles have no business cluttering up our brilliant prose when emoji can do that much more artfully, but unlike many writing jobs, punctuation can move real sums of money. Proof? You want proof? How about this gripping yarn in The New York …

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Mar 04

Happy National Grammar Day!

On this National Grammar Day, try to throw into your conversation one excruciatingly correct usage that nobody ever uses, just to mess with people. Announce your presence by saying, “It is I!” Ask “to whom” you should send some paperwork. And smile! It’s like eating a burger off the good china just to remind yourself …

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Feb 20

The best day of my life! I could be happier!

“I could care less,” when you mean that you care not at all and, thus, couldn’t actually care less, has been a wrinkle in my sock since I was a child. Here’s one of the best tutorials on how to stop saying this wrong, by a wonderful English comedian, Dave Mitchell. And as a bonus, …

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Feb 13

What’s the story?

Storytelling is a basic human need and pleasure, and it’s available now in so many forms, from movies and video games to the more timeless venue of a person alone in a spotlight sharing a tale with an audience. I am delighted to announce that a story about my late mother that I penned and submitted …

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Feb 05

The power of proofreading

Using good (or at least audience-appropriate) grammar is a way of showing a baseline level of respect for the person or people you’re addressing. This is especially important in formal communications where you don’t know your audience personally, such as most business correspondence, including email, and early-stage online dating overtures. You wouldn’t post, in a …

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