Unusual afternoon in Hammersmith, West London. I went to the Irish Cultural Centre, normally a good place to find a quiet moment. How wrong I was, surrounded by a crew making a radio recording.
"Are you part of this?" some guy asked me, while I was writing an email. I shook my head, too busy to speak. The crew ignored me and carried on while I tried, and failed, to ignore them.
I met the 'guy', Se Merry Doyle, later. I discovered he's the producer, a charming, amusing gleaner of human eccentricity.
The high point of the event was a poetry reading of his own work by "the Racker" Donnelly whose name was previously unknown to me. His work is articulate, thoughtful & funny.
It was a wonderful way to spend an otherwise busy afternoon.
The radio show will be available on PortobeloRadio.com, part of a series called "the bright side of the road".
I'm looking forward to listening to it next Sunday at noon, or on podcast from next week. #Serendipity #OxfordComma 😂
Why can't we just agree on never ever using commas for appositions? Just use brackets or dashes, for God's sake. No reason to wage an entire #OxfordComma crusade.
You usually hear when people citing speed of development when they advocate for open-source software.
Yet reality tells a different story. I was surprised to learn that #Hypothesis, an open source project, after all these years, still doesn't have an official plugin for #Firefox, an open-source browser and a major counterbalance to big tech browsers such as Chrome, Edge, Safari. What gives?
I doubt @lightweight and I will reach consensus on the inportance of diverse skillsets in Free and Open-Source Software, but I see from their profile that they use the #OxfordComma, so we can at least agree on that. 🙂
It is a little known fact that the so-called #OxfordComma was first used by #JohnMastodon. It was later popularized by David Oxford in his best-selling treatise “The Sartorial Choices of 18th Century English Minor Poets” in the infamous footnote 37.
It is sometimes referred to, incorrectly, as a cereal comma from the lawsuit in which Kellogg lost the patent for Corn Flakes due to an omitted comma.
Folk mewling outside the door in the rain going "Back on twitter I had a nice group of fellow furry plumbers from Scotland born in the early 80's who are into game boy ROM hacking, I can't find them now," ask around and @ me and people will boost your ask until it rattles around the system enough for you to find your Incredibly Specific group of people. The algorithm here is Folks and Luck, and those as don't ask don't get.
@ifixcoinops (Thread)
🥥 I thought your toot was asking, "Is it #Linux time?" Dan.
I'm neither a #Scotsman, a coin-op, nor someone who knows what a "furry plumber" is.
What I AM is an extremely shy 74-year-old who's experiencing mild cognitive issues, has a Linux question, wants to test the theory that the #Fediverse is all-knowing, and uses the #OxfordComma.
I'm attempting to backup a drive to a directory on a larger drive using either #dd, #rsync, or some better solution. 🥥
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@dgar
The stern yankee woman who taught me to use the #OxfordComma referred to it simply as "a comma" an omitting it simply as "an error."
Calling it '#Oxford' makes it seem as if one is using 'u' whilst mis-spelling 'flavour' or 'colour', assuming it's ye olde country to which the name refers—the town #Blackwood calls "the stronghold of ancient customs and ancient opinion."
I assume it will eventually become a speech-crime; but I will give it up when, They, pry, it, from, my, cold, dead hand.
Second #introduction now that I have lurked sufficiently. [revised]
I live in #Michigan with my lovely wife. One daughter. One living son. One dog. Currently trying to decide what I should do with my life. Retired 20 years ago due to illness. Some of my interests in the 1st intro.
This is my first go at the social media thing. Mastodon seems much more welcoming place than the others. Came here for the #Science and #Academia, stayed for the #Art, #Dogs, #BookHistory, #Comics, and #OxfordComma.
I've been in #tech for more than 20 years. I'm starting an IT company to make modern tech more accessible for small biz and non-profits.
In my free time I enjoy being creative and unwinding through cycling or camping.
I am passionate about equal rights for all, climate change, sustainable living, destabilizing capitalism, and proving you can live a good life without exploiting others.