Who Knew?

And if you did, why didn't you tell me?

I just learned last night that it is now common to only put one space after a . at the end of a sentence.

I learned to type 22 years ago on a typewriter, well, because computers were just barely making their way into homes, and we didn't have the Internet then. When I learned to type, I had to get into the habit of putting two spaces after a period, to begin the next sentence.
However, since I have been voted to be the new secretary for our neighborhood association, one of my new duties is to put together the neighborhood newsletter. The President of the association is apparently very into grammar, punctuation, page layouts and desktop publishing.

So after reading my latest article I have been preparing for the newsletter, she informed me that I overly use the word "neighborhood" and rewrote the paragraph for me, exchanging the word "neighborhood" for "park". In my article I used the word "neighborhood" three times. She has used the word "park" four times in her rewrite. I don't get it... but ok.

And then she informed me that it is no longer necessary to use two spaces after a period, and apparently this is something that bugs her to look at because she wanted me to change it in all of my articles.

"Also, I notice that you are leaving 2 spaces between sentences. That was an old practice back in the era of the typewriter with monospaced type, but for modern use on the computer with the advent of proportional fonts, and page layout, there should always only be 1 space after periods, before you start a new sentence. Sorry, but my years of experience doing page layout has made me rather picky and sensitive about certain issues. If you already have several things typed up, I would suggest doing a search & replace, changing all instances of 2 spaces to 1 space. It's quick and easy."

So, I apologize to any readers of my blogs if my double spacing after a period bugs you. If you don't like it, either ignore it, or find another blog to read because this chickie finds it hard to stop the spazmatic thumping of my thumb on the space bar after each period. Period.

P.S. I made "spazmatic" up, but it should be a real word. Chickie too. True story.

P.S.S. Anyone know if the spacing between paragraphs has changed?

P.S.S. OH MY GOSH! I guess Blogger already knew I had a spazzy thumb and completely went through my post and fixed my double spacing.... isn't that a form of censorship???? What if I WANT my double spaces? What if I DID THEM ON PURPOSE? I find it very offensive that they would fix it, without my permission or knowledge. rude.