7 Quick Takes: Paragraphs

If you clicked on this page from Jen F.’s blogfest because you saw the Kolbe Reviews picture, click here to see the whole series.  It was the most interesting picture I had, and plus I’m so excited about my new page where you can find them all in one place.

You regular readers who are completely, utterly sick of hearing about Kolbe by now, here are 7 Takes with never a mention of the K-word:

 

1.

When I got to page 24 of Holiness for Everyone, I e-mailed Eric Sammons.  “If this hasn’t gone to print yet . . . there’ s a typo.”  I figured he or some other person had already caught it, but if it were my book, I’d appreciate someone telling me, just to be sure.  What I saw was this:

1) A long quote, indented.

The author’s words, introducing next long, indented quote.

2) The second quote.

So that in-between prose shouldn’t be indented, since it isn’t part of the quotes.  Right?

Um, no.  But he very graciously answered me, “Oh yes, we had the same question, but OSV assures us it is correct.”  I did not hear a single snicker in that e-mail.  I feel sure the man’s been practicing his holiness.

And I replied, using my super-special idiot powers, “Okay.  That’s a really strange convention.”  Ha.  Those weird publishers.  What are they thinking??

But at 5 in the morning, I woke up to my crazy-busy brain back to work in crazy-busy mode,  and suddenly I knew the answer.   Everything made sense.  I was no longer mystified.

2.

Remember long, long ago, when you used the “Tab” key to start a new paragraph?  And then you didn’t have to put a blank line between every paragraph?

They were thinking that.

A world utterly, utterly removed from the reality of blogging software.  Never even occurred to me to check and confirm that I was reading a book with indented paragraphs.

3.

Consider that your little pre-review for today.  I hope it isn’t too much of a spoiler.

4.

I just looked real quick, and the first five books I pulled off my shelf all had them too.  Apparently it’s the big thing in Catholic Publishing.

Okay, so no it isn’t really a surprise, because at 5:05 I found myself marveling at the genius of it all. And longing, deeply longing, to know how much money they saved by not having to print all those blank lines.  What a way to save paper!

5.

Lately I’ve taken to spelling “paragraph” with only one p, and typing “gh” instead of “ph” at the end.  And then I have to fix it.  I do not like this new typo.  But I’m very grateful for the red squiggly line that catches it every time.

6.

I bet  Allie Hathaway knows how to spell “paragraph”. Thanks for praying for her today.

7.

That upstart Larry D. is picking a fight with Patheos again, and for my part I just don’t care, other than to wonder who are these people who don’t like Mark Shea* and what is wrong with them?

But you know what I do care about? It relates to Patheos because this happens to people when they move to Patheos, but Mark Shea and Elizabeth Scalia are both proof that reform is possible.  Now I can’t just e-mail every famous Catholic blogger to complain, because look I already have this reputation over the Indenting Fiasco, so I’m just going to say it here:

Fix your settings so your whole post gets sent to the feed reader.

Thank you Darwin, Bearing, Julie D., and every other sensible blogger whom I read faithfully, due in part to this one kind act.

Also:  Make that little “subscribe to comments” check box show up in the combox.

***

Thank you.  Have a great weekend.

*Mark Shea writes books with indented paragraphs.  Two P’s.