I was reading an interview with the woman who what wrote that "Eats, Shoots and Leaves", the bestseller about punctuation. I was thinking about how blogging bridges spoken and written language, since this is more of a conversation than a publication.
I was also thinking about a line from "Fast Times At Ridgemont High" which I once had to attempt to punctuate for a tshirt (yes, one of the high points in my writing career is preparing copy for rock band tshirts), laydeez and gennlemens, Mr. Hand:
"what are you people on dope"
How would or should this be punctuated?
Article comments
1 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
hmmm. thats a toughie is what. you'd think a question mark should be in there. or maybe a ; since they hardly ever get any attention. "What, are you people on dope?" might be suitable, but so is "What are you people on, dope?" and "what are you, people on dope?" Who the hell knows what the right pronounciactation is. I'll be thinking about that all night.
2 - Jim Carruthers
If you listen to Ray Walston's delivery in the movie, it doesn't give you much help since he barks every word.
For the tshirts, we did four versions. However, I don't have them at hand (and only had two personally, and gave one away, and can't find the extant one).
3 - Duane
Or even "What are you, people, on dope?"
4 - Sandra Smallson
What are you people on? Dope?
5 - Stately Wayne Manor
I suppose that: "What! Are you people on dope?"
would also work as well.
6 - Stately Wayne Manor
I suppose that: "What! Are you people on dope?"
would also work as well.
7 - Stately Wayne Manor
I suppose that: "What! Are you people on dope?"
would also work as well.
8 - Stately Wayne Manor
Sorry about the triple post one and all.
My computer froze up for a moment. And
I'm not on dope.
9 - ClubhouseCancer
I think Mr. Hand is asking something like "What is going on? Are you people on dope?" rather than "What is it that you people are on? Dope?"
So the punctuation would be
What, are you people on dope? or
What? Are you people on dope? or even
What " are you people on dope?
Or, he could be asking, colloquially, "What state are you people in, the state of being on dope?" in which case, I'd say it's
"What are you people, on dope?"
But, IMHO, that doesn't sound like the kind of construction a by-the-books kind of teacher would use with his students, so I lean toward
"What, are you people on dope?
but not
What are you people on, dope? (ans: no, we're on Ritalin) or
What are you, people on dope? (ans: no, we're miniature collies on dope)
which don't seem to be what he's asking.
Oh, and people on 'ludes shouldn't drive.
10 - JR
CC: "What are you people, on dope?"
This one gets my vote.