Odd Jobs and Random Tasks

Following on yesterday's report, one reader provided an interesting essay on why some book-to-movie adaptations fall short of our hopes.  (Hint: It's got something to do with the "master" part of masterpiece.)  We'll see if Baz proves up to the test by making something Great this summer...  Another reaches further back into literary canon and provides another Fleetwood Macbeth quote, this from Duncan's ghost's monologue: "I know there's nothing to say.  Someone has taken my place."

As today's Report headline suggests, we're tackling the working world today.  (Sorry for those who thought we were discussing diminutive Bond villainsand their Austin Powers parody counterparts...)  Specifically, we're taking a behind the scenes look at 15 different jobs, from dominatrix to paramedic.  The stories these men and women at work tell provide interesting glimpses at what actually goes on in worlds we may not know about.  Trust me, it's worth pushing through the shocking disturbingness of the dominatrix profile to get to the rest, though hers is probably the only place you will hear "I can be in my dungeon for up to seven hours" today.  The Undertaker's perspective proves HBO's Six Feet Under did its research, while the five year unpaid intern suggests maybe something about the intern system is broken and/or illegal.  Plus, if you don't feel like reading, you can just check out the cute little graphic representations... Though in real life I've never encountered a cab driver who looks like Travis Bickle.

Finally from our continuing Coincidences series, an extended story (to make up for a short report) about a college interview:

Georgetown was the first of my college interviews. I remember feeling incredibly nervous as I pulled up to the house of my alumni interviewer, a local judge who lived in the next town over. I was wearing a newly acquired navy suit skirt (the first time I actually had use for such an item of clothing) and uncomfortable grown- up shoes. I rang the doorbell, hesitantly. A dog started barking wildly from inside.

"Come on in", I hear, " I just need to put the dog away." As I open the front door, I see the alum interviewer struggling to gate off the kitchen in order to keep some large animal inside.

"Oh, that's fine, I don't mind. I love dogs. We have a brown-and-white Brittany Spaniel at home named Molly."

The interviewer stopped trying to wrestle with the dog. He looked a little taken by surprise. I took one step closer, peered  in the kitchen, and saw none other than a brown-and-white Brittany Spaniel.

"Her name's Molly", he said.

It's an odd world!  It's also Nathan Fillion's birthday!  If you don't know who that is, maybe you've seen him at the gym?  No, he doesn't go to the gym. He's just naturally like that.

Punctuation Day. Period.

After this weekend, autumn is officially upon us (it began on Saturday), so prepare for lots of Fall-related Reports.  Decorative Gourd's are already popping-up in grocery stores, so it can only be a matter of time...

But first, a disgruntled and impatient reader sent me an e-mail earlier this morning alerting me that today is National Punctuation Day.  This reader had some choice uses for punctuation marks, which I won't repeat here for the sake of decency.  But (and I'm sure this won't be good for keeping his ego at a reasonable level) he has influenced the Report for the day.  I am, after all, a Technical Editor by trade.  My missing Punctuation Day would be like an elf not celebrating Christmas.

To celebrate this glorious grammarian day, here are some useful and comical pointers on punctuation use.  First up, some classics from The Oatmeal on "How To Use an Apostrophe" and "How To Use a Semicolon."  The grammar lessons of middle school would have been so much more interesting with these examples.  These, of course, are two mysterious pieces of punctuation that are often the subject of question, self-doubt, and second guessing.  Another piece of punctuation, used in the last sentence, is a subject of much debate:  The Oxford Comma (also known as the serial comma).

The Oxford Comma, most famous for its title role in a Vampire Weekend song, is a contentious piece of punctuation.  In fact, the first question of my interview for my current position asked how I felt about the Oxford Comma.  If it is unclear by my consistent use of it in the Report, I'm for it, just as the sandwich club is for frilly toothpicks.  Others are opposed.  The New York Times, for instance, doesn't use them.  Some argue that maintaining use of the Oxford Comma is simply being a slave to historic grammatical convention, just like the type-writer imposed two spaces after a period that is not relevant in a computer-font world.  This, as NPR's blogger Linda Holmes observes, is not the case.  As you can see from this comic, the Oxford Comma is fundamentally important in reducing ambiguity.  Please embrace it.  Or respond with a compelling argument for the opposition.

Along with celebrating the Oxford Comma and other pieces of punctuation, there are numerous options for birthday celebrations of note.  Readers could...

• Have a Coke and a Smile for Mean Joe Greene;
• Play the music and light the lights for Jim Henson; or
• Believe in the green light for F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Peace, love, and Oxford Commas

Once Again, to Zelda

 I was thrilled to learn on Friday how many squirrel fans there are among our readership, and ice cream fans, as well.  (Also thrilled that no readers proposed a cross-over of squirrel ice cream.)  One reader provided a fantastic comic on Friday in response to Thursday's report on Maurice Sendak.  Seriously, thank you to all those who submit links and such.  I promise I'm trying to find ways to work them all in, but we have a sizable backlog that we're working with, too.

But today we're not digging into the backlog at all.  I spent this weekend traveling to New York and back to see the play "Gatz," an 8 hour marathon theater experience in which the entirety of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is read/performed on stage.  The experience is so much more than that, but it is hard to describe in any other way.  The concept is this:  A man enters his office, finds that his computer is not working, and also finds a copy of the novel at his desk.  He begins to read aloud, and over the next 8 hours, his office is transformed, coworkers become characters, and previously unrealized layers of the novel become apparent.  For example, Nick Carraway is an absolutely hilarious and snarky narrator.  Bet you didn't realize that in 10th grade American Lit!

The Public Theater also put together some great promotional material for the piece, including a variety of (some recognizable) actors, writers, and more reading both the opening and famous closing of the novel.  (Note: None of those talents appear in the production.)  Though maybe they should have focused more on merchandising for marketing... I would wear a Gatz shirt, much like this t-shirt.  (It makes me sad because I've never seen such - such beautiful shirts before.)  What a classic cover.  Though the re-design presented for Penguin Essentials is pretty cool, too.

Not sure if this show should be called an adaptation of the work or not, since it's presented in its original entirety.  Not like the Robert Redford film.  Or the upcoming Baz Luhrmann film.  And this (tragically auto-tuned, but) fantastic rap adaptation.  But as far as adaptations go, there really is none as unique as The Great Gatsby video game originally released for NES.  An incredible piece of work, right down to the (fake) backstory.  And be sure to check out the merchandise section of their page... Hilarious.

That's all for today... More cute animals and such to come later in the week to make up for this literature (and video game!!) heavy post.  Funny, though, that a Report about great writing should fall on George Lucas's birthday... Given his failure to grasp fundamentals of storytelling and good dialogue writing and all...

Til to-morrow, we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning---