Please help us get in and out of this porch

[FamilyWiggs]

My conversion was damascene.

What a lovely word Penners, and if I fancy turning this house pink I now know the recipe.

I hated to be a pedant, but hey we are talking about Penners here!

I think that lovely word should have a capital 'd' - as in "Damascene conversion" - like that wot was experienced by St John on the road to Damascus. Although to be feverishly pedantic I suppose he was just plain "John" on that particular journey.

I'll get my coat, shall I? :roll:

 

[Gareth Hughes]

To be even more pedantic, he was called "Saul" when he set out on that journey, and "Paul" thereafter.

I'll get me chasuble...

 

[FamilyWiggs]

I must have been confusing him with St John of Damascus. You're right, it was of course Paul who converted on the road to Damascus.

I should probably leave the pedantry to Penners in future!

 

[Moo]

Tsk! Macs....!

You may well be right, Penners. I followed your instructions to the letter with exactly the same (lack of) result as before. So I used the Help facility and did something to reconfigure my browser. Same result.

So - as we also have Explorer installed I'm going to see if that solves the problem. It's like being back in the days of the Betamax battles, on the wrong side.

 

[Penners]

I think that lovely word should have a capital 'd' - as in "Damascene conversion"

I acknowledge entirely what you say, FW. And when I was posting the word I did have a terrible tussle with my conscience about the capital letter, late into the night. :roll:

However, I eventually decided that, as the expression has become routinely adjectival these days, it could just about be decapitalised without too much risk to life or limb.

Well, that's my excuse anyway.

 

[alison]

Do you really want chapter and verse on D/damascene? It's section 4.1.12 of the Oxford Guide to Style (unbelievable bang-for-buck value at around 17 quid - I think it's now under a slightly different title). Basically 'Capitals are used ... where the link with the noun is still felt to be alive: Christian, Homeric, Kafkaesque, Europeanize... Lower case is used ... where the association is remote, merely allusive, or a matter of convention: boycott, quixotic, mesmerize, pasteurize'. There are further ins and outs (Lilliputian (of Lilliput) but lilliputian (diminutive), etc.), but I think it's fairly clear that Penners is alluding to the original damascene conversion, rather than to Damascus itself, hence lower case.

On reflection, perhaps the original conversion was truly Damascene, since there was a direct link with the place. But metaphorical allusions of the Penners variety are definitely allusive.

 

[Jon Maine]

Do you really want chapter and verse on D/damascene? It's section 4.1.12 of the Oxford Guide to Style (unbelievable bang-for-buck value at around 17 quid - I think it's now under a slightly different title). Basically 'Capitals are used ... where the link with the noun is still felt to be alive: Christian, Homeric, Kafkaesque, Europeanise... Lower case is used ... where the association is remote, merely allusive, or a matter of convention: boycott, quixotic, mesmerise, pasteurise'. There are further ins and outs (Lilliputian (of Lilliput) but lilliputian (diminutive), etc.), but I think it's fairly clear that Penners is alluding to the original damascene conversion, rather to Damascus itself, hence lower case.

Well, what can anyone say after that ..................

Next time I need someone to argue something I think I will ask you to do the research your definitely good Alison :wink:

 

[alison]

It ain't me, it's the book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Oxford-Style-Manual-Robert-Ritter/dp/0198605641/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239230160&sr=8-1

 

[Jon Maine]

But it was you wot had the savvy to look it up. Although everyone here will agree Penners is bad enough without any encouragement so perhaps you should sit in the corner with the naughty hat on :lol:

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Where's the little smiley waving a white flag?

I was wrong on all counts - as SWMBO likes to point out on a daily basis.

 

[Jon Maine]

Where's the little smiley waving a white flag?

I was wrong on all counts - as SWMBO likes to point out on a daily basis.

perhaps you should sit in the corner with the naughty hat on :lol:

 

[Gareth Hughes]

It ain't me, it's the book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Oxford-Style-Manual-Robert-Ritter/dp/0198605641/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239230160&sr=8-1

Oxford? huh! What good ever came out of Oxford? :twisted:
Though I'll admit to adding a comma to lists, enumerations, rosters, and itineraries.

 

[alison]

Ah but this book is based on Hart's Rules for Compositors, which came from the University Press, not the university colleges. Honest typographical craftsmen and women, the architects and masons of books, like the builders of the colleges themselves. Whose basic two-up two-down dwellings built by the University Press in Jericho now sell for offers in the region of £325,000.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-20915641.html?locationIdentifier=REGION%5E86995&pageNumber=2&backToListURL=%2Fproperty-for-sale%2Ffind.html%3FlocationIdentifier%3DREGION%255E86995%26index%3D10

 

[JoceAndChris]

Oxford? huh! What good ever came out of Oxford? :twisted:

 

[MdB]

Oxford? huh! What good ever came out of Oxford? :twisted:

Me! I lived there for the first two weeks of my life. Don't remember much about it to be honest....

(Ok so the above doesn't actually disprove your comment.... :? )

 

[Penners]

Well, I'm just sitting here with a smug smile on my face, doing my very best to look modest (and failing).

Alison - the cash is in the post. :wink:

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Oxford? huh! What good ever came out of Oxford? :twisted:

:wink:

 

[JoceAndChris]

Oxford? huh! What good ever came out of Oxford? :twisted:

:wink:

 

[Penners]

A picture is truly worth a thousand words.