Posted by Colleen on Dec 21, 2016 in life of a marketing gal | 0 comments

http://www.colleencooke.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Marion-Agnew-draft1.mp4

Hi, my name is Noun Marie Noun

Posted by Colleen on Aug 15, 2011 in Words and writing | 0 comments

As a professional word geek, I really dig stories like this one, even though I have heard many of the examples before: There Once Was a Man Named Leotard: People Who Became Nouns Not that I harbor any illusions that anything will be named after me for any reason, mostly because it’s quite the other way around. My first name is the Irish word for girl, so across the pond, my name is a noun, not a pronoun. It’s also commonly used in songs and product names. When I went to Ireland in 1999, every cashier to whom I handed my credit card...

Why normal people hate grammar people

Posted by Colleen on Jun 30, 2011 in Words and writing | 0 comments

OK, see? This is why normal people hate grammar people. This is why I cringed throughout most of the research for my Modern English class in grad school. “Don’t kill the Oxford comma!” over at salon.com. Christ, calm down. The Oxford comma – or serial comma – is the comma before the “and” in a series: I bought eggs, milk, and bacon. I don’t use the serial comma unless I absolutely have to, either under direct orders or to help the sentence make sense. Here’s an example of when using the serial comma could mess up...

Diving deep into the Stumpy’s menu

Posted by Colleen on Jun 27, 2011 in life of a marketing gal | 2 comments

For a couple of months now, I’ve been updating/maintaining the Web site and Facebook page for my favorite restaurant, Governor Stumpy’s. I’ve been eating here since they opened, partly because it’s a family place – the owner is one of my Irish cousins (to explain the relationship would take a forest of family trees), and my dad regularly makes the 30-minute drive from Shawnee to my side of town just to stop by and see what’s going on with the family. So I thought I had a good grasp of what sort of food Stumpy’s served (short...

This, next, last?

Posted by Colleen on Jun 2, 2011 in Words and writing | 0 comments

My friend Patrick called me this morning, irate and needing clarification (well, needing confirmation that he was right to be irate). Someone at his work asked for a part to be available “next Monday.” He placed this request today, a Thursday. Patrick was convinced that he should have said “this Monday,” as in the next possible Monday, and that “next Monday” really means June 13, not June 6. He was kind of steamed about this, actually. I’m afraid I had to disappoint him because I think that, when said on a Thursday, the phrase...