Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Flotsam and Jetsam Cats, Chicagoan claim quotation, comma contest
Posted By Sam Worley on 12.07.11 at 01:15 PM
Sign up for our newsletters Subscribe
One of the ten winning paragraphs—and, it must be noted, the only submission whose theme was feline in nature—was submitted by north-sider Ann Heinrichs.
Heinrichs's submission:
Get that [*******] animal off my keyboard!” he roared—apparently abandoning his (short-lived) enthusiasm for her new kitten. Clearly, the honeymoon was over: first, the tantrum over hairs in the sink; next, the brouhaha about the napkin rings; and now, the paroxysm aimed at Tippy. Jenny’s mind raced over her options: Should she leave him . . . or should she kill him?
In an e-mail Heinrichs says that she used to be associated with the Reader—in the 1970s, she was the paper's first classical music critic. Since then she's been a book editor, an advertising copywriter, and most recently the author of juvenile nonfiction on history, geography, culture, and politics. She's in the midst of a career transition: Heinrichs recently obtained a master's in library science, and has a part-time gig in the Poetry Foundation's library.
All that aside, though, Heinrichs's interest in grammar stems from an earlier source: nuns. "When I was in grade school under the tutelage of the good nuns of Fort Smith, Arkansas," she writes, "we had a big fat grammar textbook and a grammar workbook every year from third grade on. I ate the stuff up. The puzzle of language could be solved! The bucking bronco of human communication could be saddled and broken! Just learn the rules. So I did."
Update: Heinrichs wrote in again to say that she also authored a children's book on punctuation.
Related Stories
-
The comma—is it the ultimate measure of human intellect?
Comma usage is a profound subject.
- May 6, 2015
-
Chicago's contribution to National Punctuation Day
A dubious honor on a fine holiday.
- Sep 23, 2011
More by Sam Worley
-
For Natalie Y. Moore, south-side Chicago isn't a headline—it's home
The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation grounds political reporting in personal experience.
- Mar 23, 2016
-
A tour of bizarre outdoor art exhibits in the midwest
Check out strange open-air art along highways and byways in Iowa, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
- May 14, 2015
-
The natural selection of Jenny Kendler
Artist and environmental activist Jenny Kendler makes complex work about the weird relationship between humans and the natural world. And she has just found a bigger platform as the first-ever artist in residence for the Natural Resources Defense Council.
- Jun 3, 2014
- More »
