One week till 4th of July! Can you help with The Junction’s flags?

| Holidays | How to help | West Seattle news

(WSB photo from July 4, 2011)
It wouldn’t be a patriotic holiday without the American flags lining California SW through The Junction. But a little help is needed this time around. From the just-circulated West Seattle Junction Association e-mail newsletter:

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED TO HELP PUT UP FLAGS IN THE JUNCTION!

The Junction Association puts up flags on all appropriate occasions. The Junction’s handy-man Don has been putting up flags for years, but health issues have made repeated trips up and down the stairs increasingly difficult for him.

So, who wants to help Don on the 4th of July?!

The volunteer job includes meeting him at 7:30am to put them out, and 6pm to put them away. The job includes lots of stair walking since the flags are stored in the basement of the Cupcake Royale building.

We are looking to create a list of interested people, so if you’d like to be called upon for this 4th of July or in the future, please e-mail Liz Schroeder at liz@wsjunction.org or call 935-0904.

G June 27, 2012 (5:46 pm)

Dang, I would love to help, but I’ll be out of town for the 4th. I’ll get the word out, and hopefully other will be able to help.

Thanks Don, for all your hard work over the many years, we all appreciate it.

celeste17 June 27, 2012 (6:09 pm)

This would be good for kids that need service hours. To bad school is out.

Alki Resident June 27, 2012 (6:25 pm)

Maybe some scout troops can pitch in.

Dan June 27, 2012 (8:37 pm)

Title should be “One week ’til 4th….” (’til is a shortening of UNTIL, thus it is not TILL. Annoying how many writers screw this up.

WSB June 27, 2012 (8:51 pm)

Thanks, Dan, but as a thirty-year style guide developer and keeper, I must note that “till” is correct, per AP Style among others. http://grammarpartyblog.com/2011/04/05/till-vs-%E2%80%98til/
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When in doubt, we go with AP style – TR
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(p.s. believe me, when I’ve made an actual error, I will be the first to fess up to it!)

Delridge Chick June 27, 2012 (8:58 pm)

I was going to say…

(Dictionary.com)
“Usage note:
Till and until are both old in the language and are interchangeable as both prepositions and conjunctions: It rained till (or until ) nearly midnight. The savannah remained brown and lifeless until (or till ) the rains began. Till is not a shortened form of until and is not spelled ’till. ‘Til is usually considered a spelling error, though widely used in advertising”

miws June 27, 2012 (9:57 pm)

Heh, if we had to rely on advertising, and business names as a spelling guide, folks would be writing such things as “I headed out this morning, on my qwest for a light breakfast of coffee with kreme, and a krispy english muffin…”

Mike

RW June 28, 2012 (1:47 am)

Perhaps it would have been better to have written “until.”

I see many instances of jargon used on this blog — not in the “A.P. style.” See: poor use of “quotes,” (namely unattributed). Anything in quotes should be directly attributable. Just throwing “something” in “quotes” is pretty “amateur.”

When in doubt, make everything you write absolutely understandable to everyone.

Oh wait, do I hear a helicopter?

WSB June 28, 2012 (3:04 am)

And a cheery good morning to you too! I write as colloquially, striving for understandability, as I can. Sorry about those instances in which I’ve failed. TV is quite the training ground for clarity, for better or for worse. Its writing style may annoy some purists, but it works well for this medium – as long as some of its worst sins are avoided, such as opening stories with the declarative present tense. (“A man crashes his car into a fence! Good evening …”) As for “jargon” and “quote marks” – probably guilty now and then, though it’s got nothing to do with amateur vs. pro. And I will never claim everything here is AP-compliant; I said it’s our default “when in doubt.” But it’s going to be a long time, for example, before I drop the hyphen and resign myself to “email” instead of “e-mail,” and I remain grumpy over their softened stance years ago regarding “over” vs. “more than,” among other disagreements. Oh well. – TR

RW June 28, 2012 (3:57 am)

If you claim to write AP style, why do you write “colloquially?” It’s one, or the other.

Seriously.

You claim to be a legitimate written news source, yet you use video usage of vernacular.

‘the declarative present tense’ would have resulted in my getting fired (or at least reprimanded) in my former job…

Is “this is just a blog” good enough for you?

WSB June 28, 2012 (4:25 am)

Disagree on multiple fronts, and I’m truly sorry to hear you of all people still think we suck, but I’ve got too much to do to keep arguing, and the birds have started singing, which means I’m way behind. Have a great day! – TR

Ken June 28, 2012 (5:26 am)

Getting back to the actual point of this post, recruiting a boy scout troop to help with the flags is a fantastic idea. Perhaps it would make a good opportunity for a merit badge?

ColesMom June 28, 2012 (7:19 am)

I thought this whole segment was about finding volunteers to help beautify our community in celebration of July 4th. It’s sad to me that we disregard the intent of the story to nit-pik over grammer issues. Come on people, lets stay focused.

Sideofbluecheese June 28, 2012 (7:59 am)

I really did click on the comments because I was looking forward to reading responses of goodwill and to looky-loo which groups of volunteers might be able to assist with the flag display. For the record, I make up my own hyphenations and like to use “dot dot dot” a lot. Oh, and I use quotations frequently because it’s more expressive than “writing rules” allow. Truly, I would be making air quotes with my fingers if they weren’t already busy typing. Can hardly wait TILL this 4th when we can all just get along and enjoy our community and freedom.

sc June 28, 2012 (8:57 am)

Have always wondered who the fellow was that I would see putting the flags up.

Thanks for your hard work Don!

boy June 28, 2012 (9:21 am)

This is shameful. Everybody is asking someone else to put out the American Flag but them selves. Why can’t you be a proud American and put the flags up. It is almost embaracing to see the lack of flags on peoples house on the forth. In fact you hardly ever see flags out on national holidays in seattle. It so sad that far to many don’t care anymore. I know I will have mine out and I will go downtown WS and offer to post a flag on the street. I will do this proudly as a duty to the country I’m proud of and love.

jissy June 28, 2012 (9:24 am)

RW – I encourage you, if you think you can do better, give it a go. Otherwise I’d suggest you stop logging on and reading if their “style” upsets you so. Or just go back to bed… sheesh, maybe start the day over on the other side of the bed!