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John McWhorter argues that “brevity, improvisation and in-the-moment quality of e-mails and texts are those grand old defining qualities of spoken language.”

A sense that e-mail and texting are “poor writing” is analogous, then, to one that the Rolling Stones produce “bad music” because they don’t use violas. Note that one cannot speak capital letters or punctuation. If we accept e-mail and texting as a new way of talking, then their casualness with matters of case and commas is not only expected but unexceptionable.

Talking With Your Fingers | NYTimes.com

Which makes intuitive sense to me …

I’ve always thought the beer buddy threshold was nonsense. Still, it’s worth considering what a White House without a tippling tenant would be like. Sobriety, laudable in many respects, does imply rigidity of thought. The best presidents were open-minded, and generally open to a drink. The nondrinkers, at least over the last century or so, were terrible presidents.

The Wrath of Grapes | NYTimes.com

Twitter / @robdelaney

Today’s AP style update:

hopefully

The traditional meaning is in a hopeful manner. Also acceptable is the modern usage: it’s hoped, we hope.
Correct: “You’re leaving soon?” she asked hopefully.
Correct: Hopefully, we’ll be home before dark.

The Times has a great profile of historian Robert Caro. Caro’s writing process is amazing. He writes 4–5 drafts by hand before moving to a typewriter. Then he transcribes the typewritten pages into a word processing program. Caro has spent the last 36 years writing a biography of Lyndon Johnson.

Robert Caro’s Painstaking Process | NYTimes.com

For the anxiety ridden who feel compelled to get tattoos, Frank Lesser offers stress-free suggestions. These were my favorites:

— A heart with “Mom” written inside, beneath the words “In case of emergency, contact.”

— A mole that’s irregularly shaped. At least you know this one’s benign.

— The Chinese character for “Regret.”

Tattoos for the Terrified | NYTimes.com.

via Bike Snob NYC