More Elle Cordova shorts

September 14, 2025 @ 5:14 am · Filed by under Humor

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Many of her skits are focused on language — "Reference books hanging out":

Or on typography — "Em dash on ChatGPT allegations":

September 14, 2025 @ 5:14 am · Filed by under Humor


7 Comments

  1. Laura Morland said,

    September 14, 2025 @ 3:33 pm

    "My circulation's not what it used to be" – sad, but true.

    P.S. I was waiting for the em-dash skit to show up in LL! That one is particularly brilliant.

  2. Stephen Goranson said,

    September 14, 2025 @ 4:01 pm

    Welcome–in my book.

  3. AntC said,

    September 14, 2025 @ 4:36 pm

    half-digested in a pile of slop

    I'm going to steal that immediately — or should I give attribution?

  4. Y said,

    September 14, 2025 @ 10:59 pm

    The thesaurus gag is well-milked by P.G. Wodehouse in The Truth about George, the first of the Mulliner short stories, about two shy young people who bond over crossword puzzles and are accustomed to talk in strings of synonyms.

  5. wgj said,

    September 15, 2025 @ 8:44 am

    The Americans definitely overuse the em-dash, in many situations where an en-dash should be used instead. _The Elements of Typographic Style_ by Robert Bringhurst (who also happens to be a poet) goes into detail on demarcating the proper usecases of the two dashes.

  6. Idran said,

    September 18, 2025 @ 7:06 pm

    @wgj I could see an argument that Americans overuse the _hyphen_ when an en-dash should be used, but an em-dash? I don't think I've ever seen an em-dash used for anything _but_ setting off an aside in American writing, and they're so big, I feel like I'd notice seeing them used in a comparative adjective or a range of values. Maybe I've just missed it though.

  7. Idran said,

    September 18, 2025 @ 7:06 pm

    Whoops, I meant _compound_ adjective there, my bad.

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