Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for April 10, 2021

Or Stephan Pastis — a well educated lawyer — could just spell correctly.

This Greg seems to be a little bit pedant.

Everything is alright, uptight, out of sight.

I wondered why spellcheck was objecting to “alright”. I grew up with it being OK. Also cannot as one word now gets kicked out.

[Ace Ventura voice] Well, alrighty, then!

Some parties embrace the decline of western civilization.

Either is better than alt-right.

What’s Greg’s opinion of the oxford comma?

As a former newspaper editor who’s constantly muttering about AP style as I read horrible newspaper writing these days, this hits far too close to home to be entirely funny. ;-)

Two minutes spent reading the semi-literate drivel published on the internet shows that Western Civilization is lost.

Pastis is more irritated than I could’ve imagined, by whatever pedantic freak it was who corrected him! It’s making me nervous!

Ofcourse he’s not fun at parties. ;-)

Something tells me he’s more of a GRAMMAR NAZI rather than a GRAMMARIAN ;/

For a second I thought Greg said “alt right” and it made me nervous…

This guy must be one of the regular commenters on GoComics.

AITE

If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a grammarian eat?

My Grandma was not much of a Grammarian!

Irregardless, the thing of it is, is that Pig doesn’t talk good.

“alright” must be alright because people use it alover the place all ready…

Well, anyway, not that much fun.

I is goings to talk Englees the way I wants. We is not their colony anymore. What cha gonna does, grammarian?

Lock him up and throw away the key.

He doesn’t seem to be that fun in society either!

Okay. All right already.

Even I as a writer and editor have to concur with “Greg the Grammarian” if he chooses to abide by a “stylebook” set forth by “A.P.” if “A.P.” is an abbreviation for Associated Press and “Greg” really is in essence referring to a style guide.There are many style guides that are used in writing, e.g. the Chicago Book of Styles is one major example, for writers and editors. However, each industry, if not companies and publishing houses, may have their own publishing style guides.So, if I choose to say that Stephan Pastis is alright with this comic or that everything I see in every Pearls Before Swine comic is “all right” then I am correct in using both selections since I am inferring two different concepts.

Aight.

I’m hoping for an encounter of Greg the Grammarian and the Comic Strip Censor. That could be a fun party to watch.

https://twitter.com/APStylebook/status/563732059412500480

Matthew McConaughey may want to weigh in here.

I hate the AP. They think they’re so smart. Explainers. Fact Checks. Capitalizing ‘black’.

They must think we’re stupid.

That’s alwrong.

Oy!

The spoken language is the correct basis of a language, the written is out of date if it is so called grammatically correct.

Pretty clever getting the spelling from vocalization.

I identify with Greg more every strip.

Alright!

Lennon was such a great lyricist – “Revolution”: ♪ Don’t you know it’s gonna be (all right) All, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all right All right, all right, all right, all right, all right ♪

Celebrating ignorance.

If Greg the Grammarian got in a car wreck and lost his left leg and left arm and left eye, would he be all right or alright?

The AP manual can’t spell.

I keep a copy of Elements of Style beside my comics computer so I can pick apart all the bad grammer.

He’s not fun anywhere.

The key word here is stylebook. It’s an interpretation of the rules and it’s not the only one.

Yeah, “alright” makes me grit my teeth. My dentist loves me.

…and they thought the Censor was annoying.

Keep him locked in the basement.

Alright was in Webster’s collegiate dictionary, 7th addition, 1963

Um, we use CMoS….

Actually, writers for our local news outlets are sadly in need of his services.

From Merriam-Webster: “Although the spelling ‘alright’ is nearly as old as all right, some critics have insisted alright is all wrong. Nevertheless it has its defenders and its users, who perhaps have been influenced by analogy with altogether and already. It is less frequent than all right but remains common especially in informal writing. It is quite common in fictional dialogue and is sometimes found in more formal writing.”

I’m with Greg. “Alright” is an abomination. So sue me. 8-)

TBH, Rat isn’t that much fun at parties, either. Maybe he should be locked up, too?

Please, we need more Grammarian!!!

Greg’s right on that one.

Greg is where he belongs.

Are they serving pizza in that basement?

Don’t worry about it, Rat (or Pastis). Write what you feel like writing, and then give Greg a red pen and let him mark up the speech balloons. Someone else will apply the corrections before we go to press.

Relying on writers to copyedit their own writing is not a wise practice.

Yep, Steph was “corrected” by someone alright. Or is that “all right?”

It also signals the end of civilization if you read “stop the strip” as “shtop the shtrip”. That one’s been bugging me.

He may not be fun at parties, but at least he’s a part of the funnies.

Do they have Ignatius J. Reilly locked up down there?

What’s amazing is that he can hear how the words are spelled.

OMG, still the same BS I had to go through at Bell Telephone Laboratories to get my Electronic Switching System Program Description printed for Central Office distribution to be ignored. And me with only 15 college credits of English. And they translated it to unreadable 1700s Old English. Thanks a lot Geoffrey Chaucer!

I’m all right with alright, but the one that really annoys me is “a whole nother” To me it’s like fingernails on a chalkboard!

Alrighty then.

Hey, you kids! Get out of my hovel!

Love this comic strip

I gotta agree with Greg on this one: that particular abuse of the language sends me into a tizzy.

I like Greg’s attitude! He is right.

Try telling that to these guys:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afam2nIae4o

Is it weird how the crocs haven’t been in the strip for almost a month?

well, he has a point

THE A.P. Stylebook.

Again, not “grammar”. It’s spelling, and a press style sheet is not a grammar authority, it’s in the sphere of private enterprise managing their own affairs. Anyone else is free to follow its dictates, of course, which doesn’t change anything.

Every dictionary recognizes alright. Am I more funner?

I’m not great about bad grammar myself, even if I’m not up to this guy’s level. I think this dude makes Rat look like the late Bob Ross.

Never forsake the Oxford Comma.

Shove it Greg.

I actually have an AP Style book somewhere from college days.

I can never be sure which style I’m supposed to use for my different classes. Especially when they tack on numbers.

Greg the grammarian would also point out that he’s asocial not antisocial.

Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach; those who can’t teach, police grammar on the Internet

Well, now, laddies, that’s all right!

Feeling proud to be a veteran member of the Grammar Police, all right?

For more on this, see the Pearls strip from July 19, 2013.

I’m a grammar nerd and i dont dwell in a hole lol

Greg is correct. I have a copy of that book.

its ok greg, im not fun at parties either.

“It’s Alright” by Echo and the the Bunnymen. Great song.