No reason to cap a season

4 comments October 17th, 2008

The previous week it was a medical issue. This past week I was on vacation. But now I’m back and raring to blog.

While I was away, a reader called to complain about a headline in which “fall,” the season, was not capitalized and said she was taught otherwise in school. Unfortunately, that’s probably ture.

Capitalization is an issue often determined by “house rules,” and in our own little worlds we tend to use uppercase for what we think is important. If a teacher wants you to capitalize the seasons, you probably should — while you’re in that classroom. In the big, bad outside world, however, “spring,” “summer,” “fall” or “autumn,” and “winter” are generally lowercase.

In fact, writing “the Fall” could be interpreted as referring to the concept in Christian theology of “the Fall of Man” — “Adam’s sin of yielding to temptation in eating the forbidden fruit, and his subsequent loss of grace.” Now that’s a term deserving of the big-letter treatment.

A gulf is more than a gap

Add comment September 3rd, 2008

There are many named gulfs around the world, from the Gulf of Aden to the Gulf of Venice, but two are so widely known that each can be referred to after first reference as “the Gulf” — the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Mexico.

Another thing they have in common, of course, is oil — which is why they’re in the news frequently. That and storms and wars.

Other gulfs come and go in the spotlight, but no other gulf rates this capitalized treatment.

The word “gulf” can be traced back to the Greek “kolpos,” which also meant “a fold” or “bosom.”

In addition to a large body of water, a gulf can be an eddy or whirlpool, or “a wide, deep chasm or abyss,” or “a wide or impassable gap or separation,” literal or figurative.

As a verb, “gulf” means to swallow. A more common verb is “engulf” for “to swallow up; overwhelm” or “to plunge, as into a gulf.”

The history of the Mideast has shown that it’s easy for nations to get engulfed in the Gulf.