Grammar on the gay beat
Genre, a lifestyle magazine
for gay men, has an advertising section every month with interviews of "
Genre men", one from each of
several cities. Questions about favorites: gym, bar, restaurant,
retailer, place to hang. (Picture of gay male life: we work out,
go to gay bars, like to eat and shop and hang with other gay men,
cruising them.) Other more specific questions, some silly ("If
you were a cocktail, what would you be?" and "Who is the chick you'd
switch for?"), some serious ("When/How did you come out?" and "What are
you afraid of?").
New York City is represented in the November issue (p. 71) by Arnie
Plotnick, a 46-year-old cat veterinarian who's inclined to smart-aleck
answers:
First thing you do in the morning?
My boyfriend.
And then there's the question:
If you could go back in time to any
year, what year would you go to?
Plotnick snaps back:
I'd go back to a time when people
didn't end sentences with a preposition.
Ah, that prescriptive fiction Dryden's Rule, a.k.a. No Stranded
Prepositions. Particularly ridiculous here, since the fronted
version of the interviewer's question is stunningly awkward:
If you could go back in time to any
year, to what year would you go?
Whether by intention or accident, the
Genre
editors get their revenge by following the stranded-preposition
exchange with this one:
How important are politics to
you? Be honest.
Very important. We have to do everything we can to stop the
radical right-wing bigots from destroying our country and everything it
stands for.
There you have it: stranded prepositions
AND a
prejudice against them. They are everywhere.
(In case you're curious, the answers to the other questions above are,
in order: New York Sports Club, Gym Bar, RUB (Righteous Urban
Barbecue), Whole Foods, and "on the grass by the pier on Christopher
Street"; Absolut Peach and Tonic; Bjork "or maybe J.K. Rowling"; "I
didn't really come out of the closet" because "the entire house kind of
fell down around me instead"; and gay Republicans.)
zwicky at-sign csli period stanford period edu
Posted by Arnold Zwicky at November 4, 2006 11:57 AM