Emdashes—Modern Times Between the Lines
The Basics:
About Emdashes | Email us
Ask the Librarians
Best of Emdashes: Hit Parade
A Web Comic: The Wavy Rule
Features & Columns:
Headline Shooter
On the Spot
Looked Into
Sempé Fi: Cover Art
Song for a Punctuation Mark Dear to Our Heart
Filed under: Headline Shooter Tagged: poetry, punctuation
Martin Schneider writes:
Via her mailing list, Mignon Fogerty, Macmillan's "Grammar Girl," passes along this "Ode to the Em Dash," written by punctuation enthusiast Sandra Ridpath:
"Ode to Em—"
As you dash about, I admire how
Straight, crisp and lean you look;
And whether before, after, or between
Your words, phrases, and clauses—
You create bold—almost brash—pauses.
Your sharp, double-sided sword either
Interrupts, explains, or provides a crisp refrain—
Your more subdued and delicate cousin Comma,
More delicately shapes her conversational stance.
With a classic hook, an almost unstated elegance,
She crooks her tiny tea cup drinking finger and smiles,
While you slash and grin like a pirate defending his men.
On all matters of meaning, movement, and patterns.
I'm not lean, bold, or brash, but I accept the vicarious compliment nonetheless. Nice job!
About us
Hello! I’m Emily Gordon, an editor, critic, copywriter, and pre-web internet nut. Emdashes, born in 2004, spent many years as a New Yorker fan blog. The project garnered some nice compliments and press.
The blog’s now treading the territories of punctuation, publications, movies, design, and other things that stir me.
Over the years, I’ve worked with a brilliant brigade of culture writers, editors, and artists. You can read all about the people who've helped build Emdashes here at “Who We?” (That’s a New Yorker joke. Old habits die hard.)
I welcome submissions, questions, corrections, and ardent, obsessive contributors. I also host occasional book-related contests and giveaways. Questioners and publishers, just email me.
Looking for The New Yorker magazine or newyorker.com? Kudos on your classy taste. Here’s how to find and contact The New Yorker.
Tell me more
Dashes, some say, “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like the em dash itself—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.
Unsigned posts are by me; other columnists and contributors include Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, plus various guest stars.
The site was designed by House of Pretty with illustrations by Jesse R. Ewing.
Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (author of Emdashes webcomic “The Wavy Rule”).
Jennifer Hadley designed the original Emdashes pencil logo, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
Some writing by Emily Gordon
- Liveblogging: the 2013 Street Fight Summit, a conference on hyperlocal business
- Reviews: as a theater critic at Time Out Chicago
- Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World)
- Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, bon vivant, New Yorker founding father (for Print)
- At the scene: a festive downpour at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade; celebrating the lindy-hop legend Frankie Manning (for NYCgo.com)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- Inquiry: Does a New Republic redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
- Profiles: rising designers under 30 (for Print)
{Some more clips to snack on, pending a redesign of this whole clips business}
Blogroll highlights
- The Beautiful Sentence and Obscure Controversies (Emily’s distractions)
- Box Office Boffo (Martin Schneider on movies)
- World of Pollux (artist Paul Morris)
- Jonathan Taylor (scholar and critic)
- Carolita Johnson (cartoonist and rabble-rouser)
- My 2004-era blogroll (still current-ish!)
- Follow Emily on Twitter
- Befriend Emdashes on Facebook
- Get Emdashes swag at the CafePress emporium
No fear
Everything you tell or send me is off the record unless I ask for your permission to use it.
Advertise with Emdashes
Emdashes used to have ads, and it might again. Email me if you want to talk turkey.
Comments
Love it!
More, please.