Rivet-counting on Google

[martin_wynne]

The rivet counters have moved on to full stops (periods). An interesting read:

 

 http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/03/us/politics/a-period-is-questioned-in-the-declaration-of-independence.html

 

Martin.

[TheSignalEngineer]

This could be developed into another Thomas the Imperialist Tank Engine thread with a little thought, but I haven't got the time.

[EddieB]

Not rivet counting per se - the link between female angst and periods is more commonly delineated by the letters P, M and T.

 

HTH.

[Ozexpatriate]

The rivet counters have moved on to full stops (periods). An interesting read:

 

 http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/03/us/politics/a-period-is-questioned-in-the-declaration-of-independence.html

 

Martin.

Indeed it is Martin. Arguably moot because it is the Constitution that defines the law in the US. The Declaration of Independence is interesting in that it defines intent.

 

What surprised me in this article is that there is reference only to Jefferson but in Prof. Danielle Allen's defense it is Jefferson who wrote down the bit in question.

 

Jefferson is certainly the author of the preliminary version of the 'rough draft' (and in good 18th century style probably plagiarized a lot of it from George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights) but the emendations on the the rough draft also came from Adams and Franklin who along with Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston formed the "committee of five" who were responsible for producing the final version brought before the Second Continental Congress.

 

Of course In the 'rough draft' the punctuation mark in question is neither a period nor a comma, it is a semi-colon and that section of the rough draft contains no emendations, hence Prof. Allen's very reasonable assertion.