Torontoist » grammar

S.T.O.P.

Photo by PDPhotography from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. Earlier this month, the Globe ran a piece on Toronto, interviewing locals about the parts of town they enjoy most. The most interesting thing about the article, however, was the title: I love T.O. Of all short forms for the city, “T.O.” is the worst, and when [...]

Joe Clark’s Got a Brand New Book

Photo of the New Canadian Library edition of Ethel Wilson’s Swamp Angel by David Topping. Note spelling of “colors.” You probably write “honour” and “analyze.” Quite possibly you write “cozy” and “axe.” But do you write “jewellery” or “jewelry”? “Focused” or “focussed”? To guide you through the mangrove swamp that is Canadian spelling, up pops [...]

Radical Agendas

Behind the scenes, we at Torontoist are known to pedantically and tediously debate the use of em dashes—like these—and the proper form of an ellipsis (technically, “…” is more correct than “…” See? Tedious!). While we’re fans of splitting grammatical hairs and clearly make our own share of errors from time to time, it’s hardly [...]

Baby, You Can Steal My Car?

Good newspaper headlines are concise, descriptive, clear, and––occasionally, just occasionally––nothing short of genius. And then there’s “Man who stole car with baby faces more charges.” Originally published yesterday on The Star‘s website without a clarifying subheadline, the wonderfully ambiguous title evokes at least three possible scenarios when left by itself: 1. The man and baby [...]