Squashed and roasted

[desperance]

I do wish someone would sit Stupid Cat down and just explain to him, what is good catfud and what is not.

I am not quite at my digestive best today - which may be due to the end of a course of medication, or it may be due to the incontinent quantity of beer I consumed last night, being out on the town with Sean - so I thought I'd make soup for lunch, with the butternut squash I'd roasted yesterday.

Think again. Young Sir apparently thinks roasted butternut squash is quite the thing for a growing cat...

So I'm making a mushroom and apple soup with just a hint of roasted butternut squash. Sigh. It'll be fine, but honestly. Butternut squash?

[By the way, does anyone out there know whether, when you italicise a word, it is proper form to italicise also the punctuation that follows it? Question marks, exclamation marks, etc? Or not?]

Comments

[sboydtaylor.livejournal.com]

In an italicized sentence, I believe you are expected to italicize the punctuation. Otherwise it would look very... strange.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

This is my own feeling, and I do it without thinking; but I always have Doubts, because I'm sure I've had professional copy-editors and proofreaders doing the other thing to me. So I thought I'd ask...

[sboydtaylor.livejournal.com]

If the publisher wants it the other way, they will fix it.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

This is true, of course, but I do hate being fixed. I dislike giving them any opportunity - true or otherwise - to think that I have made a mistake.

[wishwords.livejournal.com]

I have no idea about the cat. I had a cat that used to kill bananas. He'd carry them around, claw and bite them. Have you ever tasted banana skin? Sometimes cats are just idiots.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Not tasted it. Smoked it, but that's a whole nother question...

[dedbutdrmng.livejournal.com]

Does this actually do anything? I have heard varying reports.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

I typically italicize the punctuation, because question marks and exclamantion points look rather odd when they're mashed up against italicized words and not italicized themselves. That said, I've never paid any attention to what my publisher does with the printed book. :)

[leela-cat.livejournal.com]

I have a friend whose cat loved pumpkin. It was the only way she could get him to take medication. She checked with the vet and it turned out to be really good for his digestion, especially if he was constipated. So, umm... you might have an interesting day or so if butternut squash has the same effect.

I usually don't italicise punctuation because (a) it looks weird; and (b) if the next sentence isn't italicised, the punctuation can end up squished into the following letter.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the warning. Sigh.

Re punctuation, I can never decide which looks weirder, italicised or not; and re (b), the reverse is of course also true, that if you don't italicise the punctuation it can end up squished by the previous letter leaning over into it. There are no victories here, on either side; I just want to find out if there's a convention.

[leela-cat.livejournal.com]

I checked with my partner the English teacher about italicisation and punctuation. She says that you italicise the punctuation if the punctuation is attached to the sentence and not to a related quotation.

Italics

[footlingagain.livejournal.com]

As a long-standing lurker around cranky_editors, I've decided that there probably is a convention. For each publisher. And they don't want the rest of us to know what it is.

I usually do italicise punctuation straight after a word, because it looks neater. But that's just me.

And cats: Don't know about butternut squash, but neighbour's cat (which I make a fuss of as often as it has the patience for, which is quite often) likes banana. Strange animal.

[jeremy-m.livejournal.com]

I always like to follow an incorrect word with an incorrect punctuation mirk? which I think is analgesic,

Your mileage may very:

[elsue.livejournal.com]

If it's the whole sentence, italicize.

If it's just a word, in my experience as a technical copyeditor, don't italicize. (Example: The buttons were labeled green, blue, and red.)

As a reader, though, I'd think a fiction writer might italicize to emphasize the question or exclamation aspect, but not otherwise. I don't *know* this, it's just speculation.

Hence: How do you pronounce ciao? versus He said WHAT?

[desperance.livejournal.com]

That looks unexceptionable. Thank you.

[esmeraldus-neo.livejournal.com]

I second this advice.