Comma Chameleon
Posted on November 13th, 2008 by Michael Antman
Here, taken verbatim from an obituary in the Chicago Sun-Times, is the amazing story of a woman who succumbed in old age to a terrible disease, then by some mysterious agency was given a second chance at life, and took full advantage of it by enjoying another 79 years:
“Born June 18, 1929 after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease, departed this life on Saturday, November 7, 2008.”
Good karma? Nah, bad comma.
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“i could have sworn that birth canal was right here!”
What a fantastic catch!
Friends of mine who read this blog are probably wondering what I’m doing reading random obituaries. Well, I used to read, or at least scan, up to five newspapers a day — the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Times and USA Today, plus plenty of online resources. But because of time constraints, I recently cut back to just one, the Chicago Sun-Times (because it’s local, generally well-written, and has some columnists I like.) But this cutback is sort of analogous to a heavy smoker who switches to an “ultra-light” cigarette — he just draws harder on the cigarette to get the same dose of nicotine. In the same way, I just read more of my one paper, including the bridge column (which I do not play) and the obits. For professional reasons, I’ve recently started reading the Wall Street Journal again, so maybe I’ll stop reading the obits — and catching funny typos — as as result.
“Born June 18, 1929 after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease, departed this life on Saturday, November 7, 2008.”
into
“Born June 18, 1929, departed this life on Saturday, November 7, 2008, after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease.”
I doubt very much a well-placed comma would have helped much here.
True, it would be only a palliative and not a panacea, but if the comma were to be excised from its place following the word “disease,” and reattached to the spot after “1929,” the sentence would kinda, sorta make sense — especially if you paused for a really long time after “1929,” then read the rest of the sentence very quickly.
Ah, what a fine touch, editing.
I mean, hey. At least they didn’t say it was -her- Alzheimer’s.
I keep swearing I won’t go back to cnn.com but the snack-food nature and frequent editorial faux pas keep me coming back.