Pleasure reading: Big Orange

I painted Fred. Then I didn't have any art for this post and it looked really boring and text-y without art, so there you go. All dressed up.

I brought home my Chicago Manual of Style today. It lives in my car, and I do my best to consult it as little as possible. It's a great resource, but it can be a little unwieldy at times. It's like searching the Oxford English Dictionary for the answer to a crossword clue. ("An 11-letter word for 'In alphebetical order' starting with the letter A? Hmm ... We'll just start at the beginning of the OED and keep reading until we find it.")

The answer is abecedarian.

Anyway, I lugged in CMS from the car, dropped it on the couch and took my shoes off.

"Big Orange?" Paul asked. "What's the occasion?"

"I'm going to start e-mailing the editorial staff a Grammar Tip O' The Day," I replied. Truth be told, it's just as much for me as for them. I've been trying to brush up on some intricacies of the English language – AP Style can be so tempermental at times! – and I wanted to start keeping a Rolodex of those confusing things I need to beat into my skull. And I figured as long as I was teaching myself a rule a day, I might as well share it with them.

Today, I tried to solidify the distinctions between modal verbs: can vs. could, will vs. would, may vs. might, can vs. may, etc. Oy. Seems there's a lot of disagreement in the reference books about what's OK and what's not. It's one of those things I learned Way Back When that could use a bit of reinforcement.

I think I'm going to put those tip-of-the-day e-mails on hold for now.

I mean, it's not like CMS is the epitome of pleasure reading; within 15 minutes of getting it out of the car and cracking it open, I'd put it back down on the sofa and Fred had curled up next to it. And that's a damn shame, because I hadn't yet reached the section detailing because vs. since and that vs. which. (Yes, yes ... I know the difference.)

To think, this is my idea of fun. Sometimes I can be such a masochist. :-)