pH and e e cummings

[Baker, John]

        As it happens, cat yronwode herself does not object to her name
being capitalized when it begins a sentence.  She posted this on the
discussion page for the Wikipedia article about her:  "I use lower case
i and lower case name (cat / catherine yronwode) but i do capitalize the
first word in a sentence. Some folks who like me think i insist on all
refs to my name must be in all lower case, but that is not so. Cat
yronwode is my name and my name is cat yronwode -- first letter of the
sentence is capped."


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Mullins, Bill AMRDEC
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2006 5:03 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: pH and e e cummings

A former columnist for _The Buyer's Guide to Comics Fandom_ / _Comics
Buyer's Guide_ is cat yronwode (pronounced "cat ironwood").  She is also
formerly associated with the underground comics houses Kitchen Sink
Press and Eclipse Comics.

My feeling is that when someone goes to such great lengths to make their
name flout normal conventions of spelling and capitalization, when they
thumb their nose at the standards that the rest of us use, and thus make
our lives more complicated in communicating with and about them, I don't
feel particularly obligated to join them as they tilt at their own
personal windmills.  So I tend to capitalize their names (e. e., cat,
etc.) when rules and conventions other than Arnold's convention #3 below
apply.  But sometimes I'm an arrogant SOB, so don't use me as a guide.

(P.S. Capitalization and pronounciation are not the only societal
conventions that yronwode ignores.  See the article about her on
Wikipedia, and the links to her Tantric Sex and Hoodoo sites).

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org