History Main / WantonCrueltyToTheCommonComma

* Invoked in the 2024 NFL offseason, in response to a [[https://twitter.com/RealSkipBayless/status/1767675553765896297 Skip Bayliss tweet]] reading "All in, my ass!" (a response to the Dallas Cowboys' lackluster free agency after saying they were "all in"). While Bayliss did include the critical comma, it didn't stop many from noting that the phrase was one comma away from saying something ''very'' different -- most notably, Rich Eisen, who [[https://twitter.com/richeisen/status/1767690052472316114 tweeted]], "I thank the comma for its service."

** Although in the neuter possessive, it's unlikely the dog would have balls to scratch.

* Two spaces after a period was standard in the days of fixed-width fonts. Since the period was so small yet took up a full character's space it could appear to be "floating" between the sentences and impact readability. A second space was added afterwards to firmly fix the period to the end of the preceding sentence. With the proliferation of variable-width fonts, the additional space became obsolete since the period could naturally fall immediately after the final letter of its sentence. Most modern applications render sentences without the additional space even if it's present in the underlying text and most style guides have call for only a single space these days. Typists who learned prior to the mid-to-late-90s still type the extra space simply because it's habit[[note]]and given that there are word processing tools that can be used to eliminate the extra space (either autocorrect or running a find-and-replace), it's often easier to just type the way they're used to and use these tools to eliminate the extra space than to retrain themselves out of typing it[[/note]]. Neither one space nor two spaces are absolutely incorrect but in professional settings your organization's style guide should be consulted and adhered to.

* Two spaces after a period was standard in the days of fixed-width fonts. Since the period was so small yet took up a full character's space it could appear to be "floating" between the sentences and impact readability. A second space was added afterwards to firmly fix the period to the end of the preceding sentence. With the proliferation of variable-width fonts, the additional space became obsolete since the period could naturally fall immediately after the final letter of its sentence. Most modern applications render sentences without the additional space even if it's present in the underlying text and most style guides have call for only a single space these days. Typists who learned prior to the mid-to-late-90s still type the extra space simply because it's habit. Neither one space nor two spaces are absolutely incorrect but in professional settings your organization's style guide should be consulted and adhered to.