1. No-Name Slob

    No-Name Slob Member Supporter Contributor

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    Punctuate this meme

    Discussion in 'Word Mechanics' started by No-Name Slob, Jul 24, 2015.

    I love this quote. I see the meme everywhere, with various styles of punctuation. I've seen it obviously incorrect several times, but now my eyes are blurring and I haven't seen it the way I would format it anywhere. Here it is without any punctuation:

    [​IMG]

    I would write it like so:
    Here's to strong women: may we know them, may we be them, may we raise them.

    How would you punctuate it, and what punctuation is the most technically accurate? I feel like you could correctly use periods, commas, or semicolons in the latter portion of the sentence, but the colon shouldn't be skipped over, correct? I have yet to see it written like that. Instead, it's written with period or another comma at the beginning.

    The more I dissect it, the more I think this is one of those "no one loses, but no one wins" scenarios, and I don't like ties. So I've come to you, who are wiser than I. Or is it, "wiser than me?" Shit. :p
     
  2. Selbbin

    Selbbin The Moderating Cat Staff Contributor Contest Winner 2023

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    Heirs to strong women!
    May we know them?
    May we be them?
    May we raise them!
     
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  3. BrianIff

    BrianIff I'm so piano, a bad punctuator. Contributor

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    The one you wrote seems fine, but I also think a period after 'women' works. It's asyndeton when the 'ands' and stuff are left out. I don't think any meaning is lost or added between the period and colon.
     
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  4. Aaron DC

    Aaron DC Contributor Contributor

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    But I don't want to be them.
    I want to stay a man :-(
     
  5. Aaron DC

    Aaron DC Contributor Contributor

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    It's asyndeton-
    Gesundheit!

    What a cool word :D
     
    Last edited: Jul 24, 2015
  6. Aaron DC

    Aaron DC Contributor Contributor

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    I think implicit in the toast (Here's to strong women) there's a call to action, so for me the colon and list of items separated by commas works best.
    If you decompress / expand what the meme is saying, it becomes something like this, right?

    With regards to strong women, I exhort you to:
    • spend time with and get to know
    • take the effort to become
    • take the effort to raise your daughters to become
    one of these magnificent beasts.

    :agreed:
     
    Last edited: Jul 24, 2015
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  7. clhiggins

    clhiggins New Member

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    As correct punctuation, it would be a colon at the end of Women, and semi colons in between the list of additional thoughts with a period at the end. You would only use commas if you were listing things and using an "and" before the last one.

    Here's to strong women: may we know them; may we be them; may we raise them.

    However, it can be just as the OP wrote it, which is a poetic style, where you don't use punctuation, but use line endings to impart a pause. Either way is correct.
     
  8. Boger

    Boger Senior Member

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    Here's to strong women, May. We know them, May. We be them, May. We raise them.

    That's the line spoken to the single mother and grandmother called May of a single mother who has a daughter during a brief speech over a glass of sherry.
     
  9. Aaron DC

    Aaron DC Contributor Contributor

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    Here's two strong women.
    May we know them
    June we be them
    July we raise them.

    Some kind of paradoxical accelerated time shift device applied to a Thelma and Louise story, where the characters regress from knowing themselves (ie learning of their dead selves), to being themselves, to raising themselves, all in the space of a 3 month time period.
     

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