Any Michigan's Adventure news?

Re: punctuation. (Edited to note: this is exactly what birdhombre pointed out in August. Somehow I missed that discussion. Surprising, because this is the sort of thing that leads me to get all Red Pen with my students' drafts.)

The Chicago Manual of Style (14th ed.) says, in item 5.12:

Quoted words and phrases falling at the end of a sentence can, in the vast majority of cases, take the terminating period within the closing quotation mark without confusion or misunderstanding (see also 5.13). In those rare instances when confusion is likely, the period not only may, but perhaps should, be placed after the quotation mark.

The example cited of "likely confusion" is when you are quoting something from material in which the source does not include the period. For example:

The first line of Le Beau's warning to Orlando has long been regarded as reading "Good sir, I do in friendship counsel you".

Item 5.13 goes on to describe "British style" (vs. "American style") in which:

...if they belong to the quoted material, they are placed within the closing quotation mark; if they belong to the including sentence as a whole, they are placed after the quotation mark. The British style is strongly advocated by some American language experts. In defense of nearly a century and a half of the American style, however, it may be said that it seems to have been working fairly well and has not resulted in serious miscommunication. ... the University of Chicago Press continues to recommend the American style for periods and commas.

It's fair to say that the CMoS is not the only "major" style guidebook, and others may disagree.

/user chunks Strunk & White's "The Elements of Style" in the "dust bin". ;)

Strunk & White is as much about composition (or "semantics") as anything. CMoS is really more about mechanics/syntax. I have (and use) both.

I'm an AP style guy, myself. And I still think it's proper to capitalize "Web" as a proper noun, and to me, it's a "Web site," not "website."

Brian Noble said:

The first line of Le Beau's warning to Orlando has long been regarded as reading "Good sir, I do in friendship counsel you".

Interesting, I hadn't thought of that type of exception. I suppose the only alternative might be "Good sir, I do in friendship counsel you[.]" Or putting [punctuation added] after it. Which just looks clunky.

In truth, if I were the one setting the text, it wouldn't have even occurred to me that putting the period inside the quotation mark would make the quote less legit... so I learned something new today. :)

Item 5.13 expounds on that as a more formal exception: "There may be some risk [of misunderstanding] in such specialized material as textual criticism, but in that case authors and editors may take care to avoid the danger by alternative phrasing or by employing, in this exacting field, the exacting British system."

Jeff: "the [World Wide] Web" probably should be capitalized, just as "the Internet" generally is. I'm less sure about a "website" though.

CoasterDemon said:
Travis, the period goes inside the quote ;)

Is that what he/she said?

Can I just mention how refreshing this discussion is among the hoards of online forums containing posts like "y do u care about grammer so much its just a msg board if u can read it it shouldnt matter lololol!!!1!11"? It's honestly one of the things I appreciate most about this, um...Web site. :)

I'm no grammar nazi, but I absolute hate reading some of my Facebook friends posts. HATE!

I don't feel as if I am any more intelligent as the next guy, so when I see lazy shorthand, misspellings, and very poor use of the English language, I lose a little faith in humanity.

Has anyone here come across the extra consonants yet? It really sucks...

"hey tttravis i want ttto partttty wut timmm iss datttt partty yo wunna ggggo wittt mmmme ttto ddda parttty?????"

It's infuriating!

It seems like the most illiterate people on Facebook are one degree of separation from me. I saw a very long rant today about something political without a period anywhere. If this is majority America, then no wonder we keep electing substandard people to office.

Jeff said:
If this is majority America, then no wonder we keep electing substandard people to office.

I sense a theme lately. ;)

While I am not aware of any new attractions for 2012, Shivering Timbers' first drop and other sections have been re-tracked to provide a smoother ride. The Falling Star has been removed.

As for Michigan's Adventure investing more into the water park more than into the amusement park, check out some of the discussions about Holiday World's latest water park expansions and their justification for it: the typical family - which generates more money for the park than coaster enthusiasts do - spends most of their time in the water park.

Michigan's Adventure serves the smallest market in the Cedar Fair family. That is, it serves the smallest number of potential guests due to its location: people who live a couple hours south of the park are already closer to Cedar Point and Six Flags. For that reason, adding another large roller coaster would not draw many more guests - all the guests who would come to the park already do because they live nearby, and the rest go to other parks because they have more large rides and are closer. The only way Michigan's Adventure could compete against the larger parks is to grow larger than the other parks - which isn't going to happen when the competition owns them. So, it's important that pricing remain reasonable enough to maintain steady attendance numbers. Low attendance leads to the fate of Geauga Lake.

Just a couple quick replies to your post Coaster DJ. You mention Holiday World's water park expansion. Compare what they have done in the last 5 years to what MA has done, and Holiday World has outshined them in every way. And, they have a much smaller customer base, yet, they seem to be adding major attractions with no problem.

Also, When Cedar Fair claims that MA only has a potential customer base of 5 million, that's a very minimal amount, and does not include all the visitors that come from Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. So take that number and tripple it, as the numbers of people who come to the park could be greater, if they attempted to do something to attract them. Which in recent years they have not. Like I have mentioned before, a lot of MA's visitors are from Chicago. Which Cedar Fair does not include in it's potential customer list, because I guess they assume everyone goes to Great America.

Look at Shivering Timbers, when it opened people were coming from all over the country to ride it. Some even came from as far away as Europe, and attendance skyrocketed, and the original owners of the park did not have the billions that Cedar Fair has to work with. So, why they don't seem to want to have that kind of excitement at the park again baffles me.

Perhaps Cedar Fair knows everything they need to know about their Michigan's Adventure park in order to run it profitably, and you can only speculate. Perhaps Cedar Fair crunch numbers on a regular basis that you as a fan of the park are not privileged to have. Perhaps Cedar Fair knows more than you when it comes to making the park profitable. Perhaps a company would know better about one of the products that they offer than the fans of that product.

No matter how many times people say these things to you, you still complain about it. Allow it to slap you upside the head and realize that MA is never going to be as large or as good as a lot of other parks.

If it bothers you that much, and is that important to you, you could serve your happiness by moving to a place that has a decent theme park within driving distance. You could change a lot easier than Michigan's Adventure could change.

Timber-Rider said:

And, they have a much smaller customer base, yet, they seem to be adding major attractions with no problem.

That's absolutely incorrect. Holiday World is doing a million visitors a year now, and Michigan's Adventure is doing about 800k a year. Adding stuff won't change that just out of sheer geography.

Maybe he was referring to the size of the market rather than the actual customers?

He would be wrong in both cases, unless you were convinced that people from Chicago were interested in crossing the lake.

Maybe the people of Michigan simply don't deserve better than what they have now. Ever think of that? When all my kids do is complain and whine, they get nothing. Curiously, the kids eventually learn to stop.

We already know no one would drive a half-hour to Gurnee when they could fly to Nepal for that mega-park.

MiA has a geography problem in that most of the major population centers have a bigger and better park, MUCH closer...can't we get back to punctuation? ;~P

Didn't see a previous post, but I hear the Falling Star is history.