Em Space or French spacing? Why the tongue is mightier than the sword.

Jonathan Franzen wrote a book called The Corrections. This post has nothing to do with that book, but an observant reader gave me invaluable advice. I was showing my age again. Was my Freudian slip showing? Were my true colours flying at half-mast? Am I cancelled again?

Life is continual improvement if you are lucky. Luck is a big part of life, and can be roughly divided into two kinds--good luck and bad luck. I have had my share of both, but everything considered, I am a proud recipient of “so much lucky.”

If you are visually inclined, you may notice an improvement in today’s post. Even though I type this out on an IPad, I still gravitate to what is known as the em space. What is the em space? An em space is a typographical space with a width of one em.

Em space is not the final frontier, nor is it to be confused with em dash, which is sort of an elongated hyphen. A hyphen cannot be broken by riding a horse, but is very useful if you know any rich English gentry, often the recipient of horses and the hyphen. These advances were brought about by the advances of feminism.

Women, I should say some women, prefer to keep their maiden name after marriage. If they are fortunate to bear children, the hyphen will prove to be invaluable in preserving both her husband’s last name and her name, combined together with benefit of hyphen in the new name for the offspring.

Noah Smith-Corona, or Olivia Oliveri-Underwood. If you are over a certain age, you will recognize those last names as brands of typewriters. Back in grade 10, I took a typewriting class, not because of Kerouac, but because it seemed easier than learning French. We were taught the correct placement of hands upon the keys; we heard the ubiquitous “ding” which signalled the carriage return. We were taught many useful practices, but some practices that we learned have now fallen out of favour. Which brings us (ahem, ding) to the whole point of this missive. The em space.

How many spaces should be left after the period at the end of a sentence? Based on the advice of all the style guides, the only time it is acceptable to use two spaces after a period in formal writing is if an instructor told you to. To which I reply, Mr. Taylor did it. For all of my readers with a modern eye, I have been guilty of too many spaces at the end my sentence. I’m not sure yet of how this crime stacks up against use of kerning or Times New Roman font.

Sentences are important to writers. If there were any justice in the world, my sentence would be ending soon. And as I previously noted, I am all about continual improvement. So even though my habit, even when typing with one finger on an IPad, is to add two spaces after the period, I will try to be more conscious, to ensure my writing meets the criteria of the modern style guide.

One space will do, just as my dear wife counsels one drink will also do it. What? Have I gone too far in my striving for grammatical perfection? I think not. So whether you are composing a Message to Michael, or a Memo to Michelle, it is all about what the grammarians call “the French space”. Which is one space. Who I am I to argue with the French? They invented the best kiss.

All of this “em talk” got my mind moving to memory, and the musical memory was Melissa Manchester and her exquisite ear worm, Midnight Blue. I listened to this not so modern masterpiece in the car yesterday on the way to work. From East Vancouver to Coquitlam, I was fortunate enough to hear it play 6 times, until I finally could stand it no further, and switched to the morning news.

To summarize what we have learned today:

• the correct use of space

• two spaces are not double the fun of one space

• an indication of growing up in the time of monospaced typewriting

• Also it is possible to love Cabaret Voltaire and Melissa Manchester, no matter what the experts say.

Midnight Blue

Whatever it is,
It'll keep till the morning
Haven't we both
Got better things to do?

Midnight blue
Even the simple things become rough
Haven't we had enough?

And I think we can make it
One more time
If we try

One more time
For all the old times
For all of the times

You told me you need me
Needing me now
Is something I could use
Midnight blue

Wouldn't you give
Your hand to a friend?
Maybe it's not the end

And I think we can make it
One more time
If we try

One more time
For all the old times
Midnight blue

I think we can make it
I think we can make it

Oh, wouldn't you give
Your heart to a friend?
Think of me as your friend

And I think we can make it
One more time
If we try

One more time
For all of the old, old times

One more time
I think we can make it
If we try

I think we can make it
If we try

Looks like we're gonna make it
Looks like we're gonna make it
If we try

Melissa Manchester/ Carole Bayer-Sager ( note the hyphen)