Apostropher Royale

Finished up two books in the past two days. The first was "The Autobiography of Malcolm X." The second was "Eats Shoots and Leaves."

Malcolm was quite good; at times it was even enjoyable. It was interesting in that one could actually sense his opinions modifying over time. He made no bones about his mistrust of women, or of white people; yet it seemed that his trip to Mecca made him realize that people, like the problems of the world, cannot easily be quantified into a few sound bites. Of course, he was done in by his own people. One is not taught in school about his Irish roots.

ESL, as I'll call it, was quite a droll little read. The author sends us on a charming tour of the English language, looking at the evolution of punctuation, and how often it gets mucked up. Or, up with which it gets mucked. Nonetheless, Truss also mentions, several times, the rules of punctuation, which can serve as a friendly little reminder or as basic grammar. "Elements of Style," by Strunk and White, is a better source for the rules, but ESL does jar one into proper grammatical sense.

Continuing the tenor of the email, are there any pieces of music more sublime than the Brandenburg Concertos? I think not.

M