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A Style of Our Own
One of my nieces has moved away to the bright
lights and big city of Portland, Oregon. I feared she would be abashed
about the “accent” she brought back to the near West Coast after any
visit home here. Uff da.
But I knew she wasn’t ashamed of her roots when I saw the Sisu tattoo on her last trip home. Sisu is Finnish for “fortitude” or “stubbornness,” depending on the situation … and on the Finn.
As I get older, I find that I’m growing prideful
of my Up North heritage. I carry it in my speech - willingly or
unwillingly. My fashion personality leans toward “Up North Chic” (or is
that “cheek”?).
 And
doesn’t Garrison Keillor’s line: “Where all the women are strong, all
the men are good looking and all the children above average” ring more
like truth than humor … or is it just me? I nod a confident, “You
betcha” when I hear it. (Hey, no kidding. Read about our workforce in
“State of the Lake Special Report: Get a Job … Here.”)
Anyway, as we start our new magazine year (the volume
number changes with this issue), it seemed an appropriate time to
explain our “style” for Lake Superior Magazine. Before I get
too deeply into this, be warned that Word People, as our Art Department
labels us, are loony about language. I’ve known copy editors to nearly
come (sorry, split infinitive - to come nearly) to blows over commas,
where and when to use them. There is no reasoning with an enraged
editor … a minor blow upside the head may be your only option.
Still, like our mode of dress and our accent, our word
style choices help to define the magazine and where it lives.
Generally, we follow what is called Associated Press style, the one in
the AP Stylebook found in most newsrooms, but with exceptions.
Occasionally on our pages, you - if you are a U.S.
reader - will note strangely rearranged words. An extra U might jump up
between an O and R, as in Simons Harbour, or an ER might be transposed
to turn the center into the centre. These are preferred Canadian
spellings. We tend to use them in stories written about Ontario or by
writers from Canada or in proper names (like Simons Harbour) wherever
they appear. Our Canadian readers put up graciously with odd U.S.
spellings regularly.
In the spelling of St. Marys River, we bow to a
nautical quirk. We do not use it with an apostrophe - Mary’s.
Apostrophes do not cost us extra … although there should be a fine on
all billboards that use them inappropriately, as in: Two Burger’s for a
Buck. (Good deal, wrong way to make a word plural.) We do not use an
apostrophe because nautical charts do not use one. I suspect the charts
are stingy with apostrophes for easy reading. Who wants a debate on
Mary’s vs. Marys in a storm? In talking about that navigable body of
water in Lake Superior Magazine, we go with the chart and leave off the possessive flourish, too.
Here’s a couple more. We italicize names of boats and railcars. You’ll see this in our story of Cyprus,
the steel steamer that sank with only one survivor in 1907 and was
never seen again until August 2007. It’s also in the story about using
trains in weddings - “Railroaded into Marriage.” Before computers
easily changed type from plain to italic, the tradition was to
capitalize vessel names: CYPRUS. This made it easy to know when Paul R.
Tregurtha meant the vice chairman of Interlake Steamship Co. or when Paul R. Tregurtha was the 1,013-foot vessel (longest laker) named in his honor.
We also tend to be on a first-name basis on these pages. Some publications might direct you to Kellner’s mojakka recipe in this issue, but we’ll invite you to see Juli’s mojakka recipes - beef and fish.
Finally I’ve come to a style unveiled in this issue.
It took much discussion and nearly a few blows, but we decided to go
with the current flow of our living language.
Given Lake Superior’s volume, this change has a 3
quadrillion-gallon impact for us. It’s the use of “fresh water.” We
continue to use separate words when describing the water itself, but
with, for example, a freshwater vessel, the hyphen between modifying
words has been washed away. (In the past, we had fresh-water vessels.)
Webster’s - apostrophe-s - Dictionary has changed and so will we.
But we will never have two freshwater vessel’s for a buck.
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