NO MUSIC-ONLY LYRICS NEEDED

Hyphens and dashes are not interchangeable short lines in text. The hyphen is the shortest of typesetter's short lines, followed by the en dash and the em dash. They have different purposes, and here's a perfect example of why it matters to know the difference:

From information about a song-writing contest:

"No music-only lyrics needed."

I thought I knew what was wanted before I read the rules, but it took me a while to figure out that I was right in the first place. They don't want songs with music, they want only lyrics submitted. But that hyphen pulls the two words, music and only, together into one word that would modify lyrics as an adjective. So I was left wondering what "music-only lyrics" might be.

What the writer really wanted was an em dash (for now we'll just say a dash is a dash), thus,

"No music -- only lyrics needed."

Big difference.

Even if you don't know the rule, you've seen hyphens and dashes enough that you do automatically read what the punctuation intends, so misusing them creates confusion.

So what's the difference between a hyphen, en dash, and em dash?

1. An em dash separates words and sets off phrases from the rest of the sentence.

Example:

Don't pick it -- it'll bleed!

(In case the e-mail converts the em dash character into some kind of computer garble, I use a double hyphen to represent a dash, which is what we were taught to do in typing class on typewriters. Most style manuals say not to put spaces around the dash, but because these two hyphens are still a bit shorter than an em dash, I add spaces to make the point clear.)

2. The en dash is shorter than an em dash and longer than a hyphen, and functions differently from both. It is used to connect two like items that are not to be converted to one word, but must be linked, such as "8 - 9 in the evening". (I have to use a single hyphen with spaces here for the computer-garble reason, and to distinguish it from a hyphen.) Or, "Classes are held M - W - F" (again, should be an en dash, not a hyphen). Note than when using time spans, do not combine the punctuated version with written-out text, as in, "Class went from 9 - 10." In this case, it should be, "Class went from 9 to 10" (or "nine to ten"). If you use from, use to, not a dash.

The en dash is also used in a compound phrase that already uses a hyphen, as in, "She's a New-York-City – style girl." Hyphen hyphen en dash. If it were "She's a high-style girl", that hyphen would be replaced by an en dash if "high" were replaced by a hyphenated compound modifier such as New-York-City.

3. The hyphen joins two words that are closely linked to form a new meaning or to modify another word or phrase.

Example:

He's a high-school student. (Note that this is the classic example showing why you hyphenate a compound modifier in the first place, so as not to be saying, "He's a high school student [high school-student]".)

The em and en dashes get their names from type design. Historically, an em dash is the length (width) of the lower case letter m in its type font, and the en dash is the length (width) of the letter n in the same type font.

You can find these dashes in MS Word, by going to Insert, Symbol, Special Characters.

And yes, I've written some song lyrics, two country and one possible pop/jazz, no music. If anyone out there writes music, maybe we can collaborate.

OPTION

Again with the decorating shows, talking about some surface treatment: "It's a great option to painting." She meant "alternative to painting". She may have pulled "option" from some mental list of synonyms, but try saying "It's a great choice to painting", which is what she said in effect. I imagine the show was unscripted, but always remember: watch out for the thesaurus trap; synonyms are usually not always exact synonyms.

MISSING

Dea wrote:

There was a time that I worked in a rock quarry maintaining the big dump trucks. At the end of their shift, the teamster was required to fill out a "cry sheet" if anything was wrong with the truck. Describing the problem with his vehicle, a driver wrote, "My truck is missing." Not thinking the damn thing could "miss fire," I scribbled back to him that I wasn't his personal lost and found. Today I am not allowed to work on trucks.

THE LAW

Keloid Treatment

Ed M. called me about my newspaper article on Kelo vs. City of New London and told me that Justice Anthony Kennedy, who concurred with the Supreme Court's decision to allow private persons to confiscate or forcibly purchase other people's private property for "public benefit", strangely went on to advise states to pass laws limiting the power he had just given away. Doesn’t make sense to me. Nevertheless, I wrote to my state reps and senators asking them to do this, and I suggest you do the same if you don't want to find yourself kicked to your own curb. You can probably find your state lawmuckers' names, addresses, and phone numbers by going online to www.state.YOURSTATEABBREVIATION.us (for example, www.state.oh.us for Ohio), and entering your Zip code on the page link for legislature.

Fuhrman on Schiavo

Mark Fuhrman has written a book on the Terri Schiavo case called Silent Witness: The Untold Story of Terri Schiavo's Death. Fuhrman's book is a well researched, documented, organized, and reasoned exposition from the point of view of an experienced homicide detective who has no personal stake in the case, though everyone, whatever his opinion, must view this case from the vantage point of a set of values. In the past, Fuhrman used enough rude words to make him untrustworthy, in the minds of some people, to testify about an honest black football star. But if it were possible to read his book without knowing who it's about, not read Terri and Michael Shiavo's names or anyone else's names, and not know the author ~ just consider the facts as laid out in the book ~ Fuhrman's cool analysis appears perfectly sound.

CULTURE CORNER

Gypsies and Hospitals

Nurse Sue S. wrote:

When I worked in Chicago, we had [gypsies] as patients, and always knew when we had them because the cafeteria put out plastic eating utensils and hid the real flatware. About the heart monitor: this is a perennial problem not just with gypsies but with all third world countries. Medical equipment is not sold through sales reps and conventional means like it is here, but rather it is obtained from black market dealings. When I was a manager in NM, I used to give useless stuff and clean disposables to one of our Mexican housekeepers who would take it back to her hometown and give it to the hospital there. Metal instruments that were broken could still be sold by the pound to scrap metal dealers and the money used for the hospital. Unfortunately, some of our other employees would steal the good stuff and fence it in Mexico. One year we were missing a million dollars worth of IV pumps. If you want to know why your medical costs are high.... Also, most of us who were empowered to purchase, bought the best. The last thing you want is a cheaply made instrument breaking off in your body while you're in surgery. A basic pair of good dissecting scissors cost me $97.00 7 years ago. They lasted longer and worked better, which is what you want. When we have foreign surgeons come here, they are amazed at what we have to work with and the high quality. It's another joy of being an American.

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