"I'm feelin' kind of basic today ... "

This may be old news to some of you, but I've seen it a lot lately, in my e-mail in box and beyond:

"I'm going to my parent's house for Thanksgiving."

No no nono nonononono. Unless you mean your parents are no longer sharing a roof, and you do not care to specify which one (Mom's or Dad's) house you are going to, no no nonononoooo. No. It's parents'.

Same goes for sisters or brothers. If you have more than one, and they are collectively owning something (or live together, or whatever) move the apostrophe one space to the right. That's the rule, you turkeys.

Should I be scared?

Friends, I think I've gone over to the Bad Place. Oh wait, I've been there for some time.

Anyway. I'll share this anyway.

So last night, I'm watching Ghostbusters, right? And since (because?) I love movie trivia, I activated the special feature where the screen displays interesting factoids scene by scene. Soon, I noticed a misspelling in one of them that was on the screen for just a few seconds ("Winson" instead of "Winston" -- spell the characters' names right, for heavens to Betsy!). I was horrified at the error, but this was soon replaced by me being horrified that I noticed the error.

But really, I should expect such instances of freakdom from myself by now. It's been known to happen at stranger times, in stranger places (read: Saturday at 2 a.m. in a bar) than watching a DVD on my couch.

On that note, let's talk about since vs. because. Although my Stylebook is within arms reach, I won't look it up now. Anybody have a quick and easy way to remember the correct usage of both?

What would the wizard have to say about this?

Dear Margaret Hamilton,

I'm confused.

So, like, the part where you're writing in the sky with smoke that is somehow being emitted from your broom (all with amazing haste, no less), saying, "Surrender Dorothy"? Are you, like, speaking directly to her? As in "Surrender, Dorothy"? If so, your failure to smoke-draw a comma there creates a lack of clarity.

Or, perhaps you are saying, in a command form, "Surrender Dorothy!" as in, "Give her up and stop protecting her!" to the Tin Man, Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion*?

There are two ways to interpret this, all thanks to a comma (or, in this case, a lack thereof). People like me need answers, Margaret Hamilton.

Also, props on the little loops in your R's. You must have a bit of girly spirit in there somewhere, you wicked old hag.

For this letter you can thanks TBS, as they aired TWOZ back-to-back last night, enabling me to ponder these sorts of things (and for giving me blog material).

Love,
Sarah

*Are those names supposed to be capped?