Words of Redemption

Last night, Sarah and I were reading shortly before bed. She, my editor¹, was reading the final draft one of my short stories when this conversation took place:

“It’s ‘all of a sudden,’ not ‘all of the sudden,’ right?” She asked.

“I don’t think so,” I replied.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure. I’ve never heard ‘all of a sudden’ before.”

“Really? allofasudden. allofasudden. allofthesudden. But I always say ‘all of a sudden.’”

“Maybe you just say it so fast, I think you’re saying ‘all of the sudden.’”

“Maybe.”

“But make a note on the page so I can look it up tomorrow.”

And look it up I did.

As it turns out, I am wrong.

Very, very wrong.

I suppose I should be embarrassed, but if I was, you’d never know it because I wouldn’t be broadcasting to the world that I am guilty of one of those grammatical pet peeves that people get downright twisted about.

What’s more, I’m one of those people. To this day, I can’t stand it when people use “normalcy” instead of “normality,” even both are perfectly acceptable. But “normality” came first, and “normalcy” was invented by a bunch of academics before Warren G. Harding guaranteed every politician on earth would use it at least once during his or her campaign.

Returning to the original discussion, my irrational preference for “normality” probably explains how I managed to get through 16 years of formal education and not realize that I was butchering a very, very common phrase.

I mean, how many times have I read this in books and articles and subconsciously substituted the “a” for “the?”

Thank God I’ve learned some humility since getting married².

You were right babe.

Popularity: 15% [?]

1. Seriously, she catches types of my stuff I manage to read over a dozen times [↩]
2. mostly because Sarah is smarter than me. I’m not kidding [↩]

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