Deborah Makarios – Page 113

October 7, 2017October 19, 2017

Gargoyle Chip Report XII

Chip, chip, chip.

I’ve finished off one leaf section, done a section of stem, and started a second leaf section. That leaves the rest of the second leaf section, a third leaf section, a flower section and a couple of stem sections. And then I can move on to the next step!!!!!

This is a big gargoyle.

But I am making progress, and it’s medicinal progress. Strong, purgative medicine, which is ensuring by a long course of treatment that I never do anything so foolish again. (One day I shall tell you the history of how this gargoyle came to be. Bring popcorn.)

Curtain lining: no progress (although I probably should do them before summer, in case of more than three days’ sun).

October 6, 2017

Proofreading Fun

Are you ready for some good clean proofreading-related fun? I thought as much.
Here are three challenges for you to whet your wits upon. Put your answer in the comments, and I’ll release the correct answers in due course.

Disclaimer: one part of one of these challenges (and no, I’m not telling you which) is something of a trick question. One of the other challenges may not even have a correct answer, but may result in injury, maiming or death. You can’t say I didn’t warn you.

Challenge One: match the characters to the names.
1 guillemet
2 interrobang
3 obelus
4 pilcrow
5 asterism
6 solidus
7 hedera
8 octothorpe

A ÷ B ⁂ C # D « E ‽ F ¶ G / H ❧

Challenge Two: where would you hyphenate the following words?
buried
canopy
guardians
minute (tick tick, not tiny)
sautéed
startling
strength
wheedling

Challenge Three: are you for or against the Oxford comma? «barricades self under desk and refuses to come out»

October 2, 2017

A Week with Proofreading

Drew you in with my ever-so-exciting headline, didn’t I? (Cough.) Not so much.

The Makarios household is submerged at present in a sea of proofreading (hyphenation, overhangs, regional spelling variations, punctuation…) and having tried in vain to turn my mind to writing about something more interesting for you all, I decided that this week we’d have a look at the interesting side of all things proofreadery.

So, to kick things off: which (or possibly what) punctuation mark are you? Here are three sites willing to weigh in with an opinion:

One

Two

Three

Share your results in the comments! I got comma, comma & em dash. I miss being a semicolon 🙁