My good friend and former roommate Josh sent me this article on correct and (most importantly) INCORRECT use of quotation marks. Most of my friends, family, and colleagues have heard me go off on my rants about the sloppy, lazy, irritating, and fundamentally wrong ways people (ab)use quotation marks. That includes, of course, the dreaded air quotes. This trend is my biggest grammatical pet peeve, which is saying a lot. The author of this article links to a couple of amusing blogs devoted to exposing the horror.
The burning hatred for this phenomenon was sparked by my 10th grade history teacher yelling at our class for writing about the "American Dream" in our papers. I think he even threatened to dock us points for using quotation marks in that manner. By the time I got to college and declared my English major, I dare say I equaled his passion.
In tribute, this one's for you, Tom Pearce.
NOTE: I tried to be funny by using quotation marks around the header for this post, but my fingers wouldn't let me do it. It's just that wrong.
You discussion about the misuse of air quotes made me think of "Wet Hot American Summer." Have you seen it? Janeane Garofalo hilariously misuses/overuses air quotes throughout the movie. Delightful.
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