Raise the Hammer

first off, my apologies to the author if my tone seemed a little harsh in my criticism of her word choice. i meant it as just that, a questioning of the use of one word in an otherwise rather fine article. my intent was not in any way to attack the author but rather to point out that as Mark Twain once wrote "the difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter-- it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning." And yes, i know i get more excited about these things than i should sometimes but i really care about language and its rigourous use.

And as for your comment, and i respond entirely in the spirit of amused sport, pedant, thank you, but alas, i am not a journalist, only a kitchen chair in the living room critic. with regards to my repetitive use of "as," i would be very curious to know what you use as reference to your critisim of this particular point of style. my grade school teacher maintained that it was poor form to start a sentence with the word "but," but that was rather an indication of a fifth grader's ability to complete a sentence as opposed to the possibility of creating a worthy sentence with such a technique. perhaps you feel this way because you have limited exposure to authors who successfully manipulate this "form" you speak of.

as to your insinuation that my dictionary is deficient, few this side of the American border would suggest that the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, a work of over half a million definitions and almost 3800 pages is a slight pamphlet of reference. Unfortunately, i had left my full 26 volume Oxford in my other pants. and not to belabour the point but there is a big difference between being "comprehensive" and being correct.

regardless, i think your uncited point about other possible definitions of glut makes my point anyway. being quite familiar with the art galleries on james street north i can also say that very few people who care about art would say that there are enough galleries. there is still a shocking lack of proper commercial galleries. it is still a very fragile community. besides, glut also means, according to the oxford shorter, "the amount of liquid swallowed at a gulp," or "a wedge." I doubt, however, that that is what the author wished to connote. i could continue but even i would get bored.

as to jason's comment, it would be great to have a cafe included in the redevelopment of that corner! I have seen artisits' run centres in Glasgow and london that include a cafe very successfully. Terrific place to grab a snack, see who's around and be exposed to some fine art in the process. If it is not included perhaps Raise the Hammer could put out a plea to the general reading public for someone, anyone, to open a cafe somewhere between Mulberry and Wilson. that area is ripe for somewhere for people to congregate in addition to Mixed Media. let's give Dave a break! he deserves it.

with regards to public art on the street, i believe there was talk of trying to secure time and space on the billboards for artists' use for part of the year. how cool would that be? And perhaps the mayor, if he gets his way, could include space for public art in his plan to turn the gore into a pedestrian mall.

Again, to the author, please forgive the unintended strident tone of my original comment. i was just hoping to point out that very small words can leave a perhaps unintended impression on otherwise great efforts.