I hate "quotes"

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>... I have seen incontinent quotes by writers who should know
>better. A few months ago I had ... let's call it a dialog with a full
>professor of journalism who also writes a newspaper column that appears
>locally. He told me that he uses quotes for emphasis.

Very poor practice IMHO. I suppose one starts using quotation marks for
emphasis after one has exhausted the possibilities of capitalization,
double- and triple-underlining, iterated exclamation points, writing in red
ink, etc. After the text becomes flyspecked with quotes one can progress to
stars (e.g.: "H*Y*M*A*N  K*A*P*L*A*N"), moons, dingbats, little drawings, etc.

I wonder whether the professor finds that his earnest letters often go
unanswered ...  even unread ....

-- Doug Wilson