All You Create

Here’s a dodgy problem.

Which one is correct: Toward or towards? Backward or backwards? Forward or forwards?

OK, so it’s not that dodgy. It’s pretty simple, really. Let’s focus on toward vs. towards and realize that the answer will be valid for all -ward words.

According to the Merriam-Webster Online dictionary, as well as a host of other dictionaries and Web sites, both versions are technically correct. But one is — how shall I say it? — more technically correct than the other.

Toward, backward, forward, leftward and any other directionally influenced -ward words are used primarily in the United States. Words that add an “s” at the end are primarily British. One guy even did a Google test to see if this is true and found out that, lo and behold, it stands up to a Google search.

For me, the real test is looking it up in the AP Stylebook — the bible of journalists, ad agencies and many writers — and the answer is clear: Toward is the correct term and towards is unacceptable. End of story.

There you have it — unless you want to sound British for some bloody reason, you cheeky bugger.

Happy trails!

SAK

The stay-at-home mantra has been around as long as fast food has been luring an unsuspecting public out to eat with super-size french fries: Eating at home (and takeout doesn’t count) saves money and calories. Compared with just a few years ago, more people are dealing with their current economic situation by following that mantra and eating at home more often.

A table filled with fresh, healthy alternatives to fast food and sauce-heavy restaurant fare (photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/avlxyz/55346526/)

Think about it. When a family of four goes out for dinner, the expenses build up:

• Gas to and from the restaurant—hybrid or no, the miles add up.
• Drinks—a soda or iced tea at home costs almost a dollar less than it does in a restaurant, and a cocktail or two build the tab up quickly.
• Appetizer and/or dessert—servers always try to up-sell a table by suggesting these extras, which up the calorie intake and wreak havoc on portion control efforts.
• Meals—considering how much it would cost to make the meals at home, the restaurant is making a killing on each meal while often passing on extra calories and fat, which would not make it onto the plate at home.
•Tip—for average service, a 20 percent tip is the norm; a bill of $30 calls for a $6 tip.

It makes sense on a lot of levels to eat at home. Try these tested tips to save money and calories on homemade meals:

Do some savvy grocery shopping and plan each week’s meals ahead of time. Savvy grocery shopping includes using coupons for items normally purchased or for items that pique interest; don’t use coupons just to use coupons, because generic items can still cost less than a name-brand item with a coupon. Do the quick math at the store to see which item is the true bargain. Not all generics are created equal, but many are hard to tell apart from the name brands.

Pay attention to what’s on sale, and where. Don’t drive to one store for just one or two items; make the gas to and from the store(s) worth using by consolidating all your shopping into one trip per week.

Stick to a list. Knowing what is needed in advance keeps the shopping excursion on track and the receipt shorter. Also, whatever happens, do not go to the market while hungry; those hunger pangs make picking up an extra bag of chips or container of ice cream seem like a perfectly logical idea. Remember: If it’s not on the list, don’t buy it.

Shop the perimeter of the store for the majority of the list. That’s where most of the fresh items (i.e., not high-sodium, processed boxed items) are located. The fruits and vegetables, dairy case, meat counter and bakery line the building, and those are the kinds of foods that add up to a healthy diet.

Try new recipes to keep meals interesting. Stay away from frying foods and using heavy creams for sauces. For example, gazpacho—a cold summer soup—is about as low in calories as a meal gets, and it’s loaded with fresh veggies: tomatoes, cucumbers, green pepper, onion and fresh basil, all thrown into a food processor. The stove doesn’t even get turned on and the table is set with a gorgeous, healthy, exciting meal. Or try an Italian caprese salad, made with sliced tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and basil leaves and drizzled with balsamic vinaigrette. Or slice up several cheeses with crusty bread and a salad. Or create a hearty stock-based soup with whatever vegetables are in season. Or fire up the charcoal and grill tilapia, new potatoes and asparagus. The healthy choices are boundless.

Pay attention to the monthly bills. While grocery shopping ups the monthly expenses a bit, the drop from not eating out as often is noticeably greater. Notice, too, what the bathroom scale says. Chances are that at least a few pounds will slowly come off, and possibly more. And perhaps most important, check with the entire family to see how they feel since limiting outside meals and processed, fat-laden foods in enormous portions. The benefits of home cooking will surely outweigh the lure of monstrous meals that bust a gut and break the bank.

No matter your lifestyle—fast-paced go-getter or easy-going soul, junk-food hound or health-food nut—you can benefit from a few healthy-living tips. Just consider these points gentle reminders that life is, indeed, good:

• Drink your fluids. More than half of a person’s body weight (lean muscle tissue, blood, fat, bone and skin) consists of water. It makes sense to keep all the parts hydrated. While caffeinated drinks do add water to your system, the caffeine acts as a diuretic, which is counterproductive to the hydration process.

Water also acts as a filler, making you feel full; you won’t tend to snack as often when you’re taking in enough fluids. Those first hunger pangs are usually just your body’s way of telling you that you need to rehydrate. When you first feel hungry, drink a glass of ice water.

Aim for eight to 12 (8 oz.) glasses of water per day. Flavor your water with lemon or lime juice or cucumber slices for a refreshing, calorie-free (and chemical-free) beverage. Drink water with ice, as your body must work to heat up the cold water, thereby slightly increasing your metabolism.

A tall, cool drink of cucumber water

• Watch your portions. In the age of super-sizing, portion control can eliminate many unwanted calories. Protein, such as a piece of chicken, beef, pork or fish, should be no larger than your fist. If given the choice of two sizes (e.g., 6 oz. or 9 oz.), always choose the smaller amount. Try using a smaller plate to fool your eye; you’ll see a full plate, but with less food on it than a regular-size dinner plate. Once your body acclimates itself to smaller portions, you will wonder how you ever managed to eat so much.

• Eat more fiber. Beans, legumes and whole grains are low in fat while filling you up and keeping you satisfied longer. Fiber-rich foods also act as your body’s internal broom, sweeping the colon clean and helping you stay regulated.

• Sweat it out. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that gardening or vacuuming is enough exercise to keep you optimally healthy. While household chores benefit your health by keeping you active and burning some calories, they usually are not aerobic and do not provide the more vigorous workout that your heart and lungs need. A good aerobic workout that induces plenty of sweat also helps your body rid itself of toxins. And the endorphin high that comes after a 30-minute or longer workout is an emotional perk.

Talk with your physician before starting any exercise routine; once you have the OK, start slow and watch how quickly you are able to work out for longer periods and at more intense levels. What may have seemed insurmountable at first—perhaps running a mile or completing an entire step class—quickly becomes the first of many triumphs on your workout journey to a healthier you.

• Focus on you. Multitasking, family obligations and so-called time-saving gadgets somehow eat up all your time. It’s hard to remember that you must take care of yourself, as well as taking care of everything and everyone else. Scheduie even an hour alone just for you each week. A manicure, a massage, time spent reading, working out or sitting in a garden or even a long soak in the tub all work to rejuvenate the soul and give you time to think. Whatever makes you feel rested and refreshed is the stress reliever you need.

• Laugh out loud. Perhaps one of the best medicines is, after all, laughter. Determine what—or who—makes you laugh, and then make sure to incorporate that thing or person into your life as often as you can. See a light-hearted movie, hang out with great friends, visit the zoo; whatever or whoever makes you smile and chuckle is absolutely worth the time.

When I think of prepositions, I think of Schoolhouse Rock and the “busy prepositions.” Yes, I’m revealing my generation, and I’m OK with that.

Prepositions are a group of words that link nouns, pronouns and phrases (prepositional phrases — get it?) to other words. They are usually indicators of time or space. Here is a handy list of the most-used prepositions:

• About
• Above
• Across
• After
• Against
• Along
• Around
• At
• Beneath
• Behind
• Below
* Beside
• Between
• Beyond
• But
• By
• Down
• During
• Far
• For
• From
• In
• Like
• Near
• Of
• Off
• On
• Outside
• Over
• Past
• Since
• Through
• To
• Under
• Until
• Up
• With

\”Busy Prepositions\” on YouTube

Prepositions are great; really, they are. I love ‘em so. But they do tend to get overused. “Where are you at?” Argh. This drives me crazy, especially when I find myself saying it. “Where are you?” is plenty of information; the at is completely unneccessary. Same with “Where did you get that from?” The from is not needed. “Where did you get that?” makes sense, doesn’t it? Yes, it does.

And here’s one of my pet peeves: I see writing very often that has layers upon layers of prepositional phrases, all within one sentence; and very often, those prepositional phrases that are right next to each other begin with the same preposition:

• The dog that ate the berries of the tree of Bob is sick. (OK, so that sentence bites for several reasons.)
• Bob buys treats for his dog for a snack.
• The snack on the plate on the counter is for the dog.

First bullet: two of prepositional phrases.
Second bullet: two for prepositional phrases.
Third bullet: two on prepositional phrases.

I am not sure if it’s written somewhere as a grammar rule that a good writer does not use two prepositional phrases in a row — both starting with the same preposition — but it drives me absolutely batty. I change or rewrite every instance that is within my power to alter, and I heartily suggest you do the same.

Serenity now!

Happy trails!

SAK

When it comes to money, everyone has an opinion about how to manage it. Let me just add one thought: Let’s leave the fate of dollars and cents — in the written form, anyway — to the folks at the AP Stylebook headquarters.

Feed the pig

When you don’t have a ton (or even a pound) of cash and you are writing about this lack of funds, spell out the word cents and use numerals for any amount less than a dollar:

• What can I buy for 8 cents?
• He gave me 74 cents back in change.

If you’re lucky enough to be able to rub coins against paper money, use the dollar sign and decimals for any amount equal to or larger than a dollar:

• Bob owes me exactly $1.
• I owe Sue a penny more: $1.01.
• Sue bought me a slurpie that cost $2.35.

As much as I’d like to use that cute cent sign (¢), AP doesn’t approve, so I acquiesce.

Happy trails!

SAK

Ah, summer. Gotta love all the food that seems to go so well with summer’s rising temperatures. Take, for instance, BBQ.

Or is it barbeque? Or bar-b-que? Or barbecue?

It’s not quite as sticky a situation as it may first appear.

I just verified the answer in the trusty AP Stylebook, and it states, plain as a pulled-pork stain: barbecue.

Run, Wilbur, run

No q, no abbreviation (although if you’ve already spent the money on the big neon sign — with the wrong spelling — and it’s been attracting patrons for years on end, then by all means, don’t worry about changing the sign).

Happy trails!

SAK

This gorgeous, little punctuation mark is currently making a name for itself in grammar circles and, hopefully, beyond.

“But what the heck is it‽” you exclaim (and rightly so, as it is an unusual beast).

The interrobang shows surprise and question

The interrobang is a nonstandard punctuation mark that represents the colliding of a question mark and an exclamation point (?!). Rather than having two — or more, if over-the-top form is your M.O. — punctuation marks next to each other, the interrobang gives the whole shebang in one, well, bang of the keypad.  Yet it’s an elusive cat.

Try finding the symbol for the interrobang on your keyboard. Not there, is it? The unfortunate thing is that, so far, the interrobang hasn’t come into its own, typographically speaking. Very few fonts include it and no shortcut keystroke(s) exists that I know of to easily insert one into copy. You have to click Command+Option+T on your Mac and then find the symbol and insert it. (PC lovers: I apologize, but I got nothin’ for ya.)

But hey: I’m glad that it’s available at all.

Martin K. Speckter invented the interrobang back in 1962. As the head of his advertising agency, he offered up the idea of a single punctuation mark to take the place of the albeit short string of question marks and exclamation points. Speckter collected possible names and chose interrobang (interro from the question mark’s other name, interrogative point, and bang from printers’ jargon for exclamation point).

The irony mark

The interrobang is sometimes used to imply irony or sarcasm. These uses are fine, I suppose, since no other well-known symbol comes as close to representing them as does the interrobang. However, one mark — the irony mark — has been put out there for evaluation. It is, in essence, a backward question mark. Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of takers; the irony mark is even more obscure than the interrobang. I think it would be über-cool, but no one’s asking my opinion. Sniff. Regardless, I’d say to go ahead and use the interrobang for a hint of irony or sarcasm if you wish. At least until the grammar police come knocking.

Happy trails!

SAK

Back in the day when “back in the day” wasn’t a grossly overused phrase, English teachers taught their students that every sentence ends with some form of punctuation: a question mark, an exclamation point, a period. And that punctuation necessarily is followed by two (count ’em, two) spaces before the next sentence officially begins.

This is a no-brainer.