Comments on: Does font matter?

by: Sassy J

Mon, 03 May 2004 05:16:37 +0000

Well hello Douglas. In follow-up to your question, it is possible that he has athletic abilities to “follow-through.” For example, I am told that years ago he did play quarterback on his American high school and college football teams (which requires a wrist snap and a backwards to forwards motion), as well as pitched baseball (same idea). And although he is rather tall, he does not love basketball–so I’m not sure about his follow-through on a lay-up. I actually have pretty good follow-through on lay-ups, and excellent follow-through for my tennis strokes.

In terms of romancing this particular woman, good follow-up skills means ending a date with, “I’d like to see you again soon.” Then actually calling and emailing the next day to reinforce that sentiment along with his own verbal bait so that I will be enticed to say, “That would be lovely.” In this way he actually “follows-up” and will eventually “follow-through” by arranging the next date. This distinguishes him from lame members of his gender who may end an evening by saying, “Let’s do this again” but do not mean it, because they are lacking in communication, follow-up, and follow-through skills (although they may still be athletic).

by: douglas

Sun, 02 May 2004 15:35:27 +0000

What are “follow up skills?” Do you mean, you lay some bait for him, verbally, and then he calls you later, taking the bait? Good layup? When he swings a bat does he roll the wrists, instead of stop halfway?

by: julie

Thu, 29 Apr 2004 23:39:38 +0000

He’s a gem: effortless, stimulating, romantic, with a sense of humour and good follow-up skills. Not only three-languaged but also multi-fonted. You go, girl!

by: Becky

Thu, 29 Apr 2004 23:00:42 +0000

Palatino? I dig Palatino, especially the capital ‘Y.’ He’s a keeper!

by: Sassy J

Thu, 29 Apr 2004 22:53:41 +0000

I can’t believe the activity on this one! I had the date with the dubious font-selector last night. First of all, it was a fantastic date—effortless, stimulating, and romantic. The guy has a sense of humor and good follow-up skills. Of course none of us are holding our breaths over these guys until we are much farther along. To address the outstanding issues: 1. Ending a sentence in/with a preposition. The blog mistress is right—he was being colloquial to set a casual tone, etc. (speaking of grammar, when ending a sentence with “etc.” do you need a second period?) The fact that he writes to me in German and Italian, and can craft the English language into the sublime at times will just have to override questionable grammar. The guy is very bright. 2. I did bring up the font issue—and even admitted to sending a sample to a friend. He laughed. He said he had no idea what I was talking about (but he did notice when I hit reply that what he wrote looked odd) and that when he writes email it is in normal font. I asked him “Did you write to your friends in 5th grade in green or purple pen? Do you continue to write to your mother that way? Do you draw hearts instead of dots above the letters i and j?” He laughed (but neither confirmed or denied any of that). Needless to say, none of this deterred him and we are to have a second date soon. I’ve received two emails from him today. One in Arial and one in Palatino.

by: Becky

Thu, 29 Apr 2004 20:00:02 +0000

Julie,

You’re right…”with a preposition”, not “in a preposition.” But typos are allowed here, even though Good Grief! aspires to high grammatical standards. It’s the repeat offenses that kill me (i.e., someone not knowing any better versus someone in a hurry and simply relaxing standards to fit a particular medium).

by: DCA

Thu, 29 Apr 2004 17:21:37 +0000

No one seems to have talked about the font, so I will: it looks like the e-mail equivalent of a letter written in crayon. Ugh.

Just as you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, you probably shouldn’t judge a guy by his font. Still, by the third date, you could probably work in, “So, uh, what’s up with that font?”

by: julie

Thu, 29 Apr 2004 16:02:02 +0000

Never end a sentence “in” a preposition or “with” a preposition? Huh?

by: Becky

Wed, 28 Apr 2004 23:23:30 +0000

I was waiting for a gramatically-gifted reader to notice the preposition. There’s some disagreement over the “never end a sentence in a preposition rule.” I’m with Dana–I try not to do it. However, in this case there are mitigating factors.

The author is using e-mail to set up a date with a woman he has never met. He needs to project intelligence while sounding friendly and casual. “We should go to a place to which we have not yet been”, though correct, sounds stilted. If this guy was really thinking, he could have written, “We should go to a place that’s new to both of us.” In that case I would have recommended that Sassy J snap him up immediately.

Sassy, do keep an eye out for repeat offenses–you can never be too careful!

by: Dana

Wed, 28 Apr 2004 22:51:12 +0000

what? NOTHING about the sentence ending in a preposition?
Correction (with spacing):
We should go to a place to which we have not yet been.