🚀 go-pugleaf

Barbara Bailey wrote:
> On 15 Dec 2006 08:31:21 -0800, "Prisoner at War"
> <prisoner_at_war@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> >
> >Flying Tortoise wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >> 95 in 100 .... or .... ninety-five in a hundred, never mix 'em!
> >
> >Well, I think the rule is that if spelling it out gets more
> >"complicated" than writing the numerals, then write the numeral (and
> >vice-versa).  Thus, you could wind up mixing 'em in a sentence like
> >"269 in a billion"....
> >
> >> Question marks should be placed inside the quotation marks only if the
> >> material in quotes is a question. If the quote forms part of a question
> >> but is not the question, then the punctuation goes outside as logic
> >> dictates. Punctuation is supposed to help you read what the author
> >> intends, after all!
> >
> >I agree.  But the whole point of tucking things, including the period
> >(for example, you're quoting a phrase, not the whole sentence, but you
> >yourself are done with your sentence), within a quote is that it looks
> >nice.  Hate to be inconsistent, even if logic demands it!
> >
> >And what do you do to show that you're quoting a quote?  Like, use
> >"double" quotations marks (use them twice)?
>
> I was taught that nested quotes get alternating double and single
> quotation marks with an added space between then where they run up
> into each other and always starting with double quotes.
> Thusly::
> He said, "I don't remember."
> She told me, "He said, 'I don't remember.' "
> Joe said, "She told me 'He said, "I don't remember." ' " ad infinitum.

That "extra space" would refer only to typewriting, and in fact I never
encountered that instruction. In word processing, with variable-width
fonts, the typesetter should insert a "thin space" between two adjacent
quotation marks. Unfortunately, in MSWord the smallest space you can
get is "1/4 em," which is much too big -- and which, moreover, is
interpreted as a word-space, so it will happily divide lines between
them!

> I was also taught that parentheses and square brackets were nested the
> same way, always starting with parentheses. Of course, that was back
> when typewriters were high-tech, and only specialty keyboards had
> curly brackets on them.  

Your typewriter had square brackets??