Editorial distress call, extremely minor subdivision:

If one is proofing a text in which one character speaks in a regional accent with various dropped initial sounds (like 'im for him), which way does the abbreviating apostrophe go? The text in question is wibbling all over the place and I want to make it both consistent and consistently right, but it's such a weird little issue that I can't hit on the right terms to even find the question, let alone an answer. And, annoyingly, I can't spot any books on our shelves that would give me some clear examples in print, and I keep getting bounced around online to websites where all the text and punctuation smooth and simple and sans serif.

(My instinct is that it should point toward the missing letter, but I'm not gonna base 350 pages of changes on instinct alone.)

Help?

(My instinct is that it should point toward the missing letter, but I'm not gonna base 350 pages of changes on instinct alone.)

My instinct would be the same, otherwise it would look like the beginning of a quote.

That would be my instinct, too, but I am no professional.

I couldn't wake all the way up until 10, and now I don't think I'll make the 11 o'clock yoga class I like. There's a 4:30 I'm scared of, but I'm getting my hair cut before that, and it seems like a waste to have her style my hair and then immediately go sweat. Bleh.

’ is an apostrophe. It should always be used to indicate missing letters.

‘ is a beginning quotation mark.

If your using an editor that has ‘smart quotes’ enabled, if you type a space then a ‘'’, it isn’t smart enough to figure out if you’re trying to start a quotation or not, so it often picks the wrong thing.

Timelies all!

FSGW mini-fest today. (Of course, that would require getting up, removing the cat from my lap, showering and dressing.)

JZ, I agree with you and Hil and Jesse ( edit: and Tom!). That's the way we would style it at my job. I found this style guide that backs us up: [link]

Style guide manna from heaven! THANK YOU. Plus, validation from other Buffistas' instincts. And thanks, Tom. I thought it might be a smart quotes glitch (this is a doc that originated in the UK on I don't even remember which version of Word anymore but definitely using a computer with a twitchy space bar, and has been traded back and forth via Dropbox across various versions on both Mac and Windows, and ISTG the smart quotes go endlessly, horribly awry every single time someone opens it).

He's on his way to urgent care, gods be praised! I kinda can't believe he's actually going to seek medical attention for a condition where nothing is falling off his body. But yay! Hopefully he'll feel better soon, once those antibios get in his system. I know he hates the idea of them, but sometimes it's necessary, bro.

Okay, now I'm going to have breakfast, listen to the murder ballads album my buddy sent, and finish the admin work that's been eating me for the past week.

Happy Groundhog Day, Buffistas!

Apparently Phil did not see his shadow. We'll see if the early spring comes true, I guess.

One of my friends went out to Punxsutawney (not too far from here) to see Phil this morning. Well, he went last night, since if you want to see anything, you've got to spend the whole night outside waiting. When I found that out, I decided that it didn't seem like as much fun as I originally thought it might be.