Sammy's Trattoria tops my list. They offer fabulous winter specials such as Osso Bucco or Pumpkin Ravioli in Cream Sauce. The Mushroom Risotto and the Sausage and Peppers appetizer are also terrific. Sammy's has a warm, inviting, cozy atmosphere. The owner and staff are all quite friendly and in my experience will make things off the menu at your request!

I nominate the snackbar at Patterson Bowling Alley. Their mozzarella sticks are fried to perfection and accompanied by an amusing marinara sauce that delights the senses. For the main course I chose a slice of pepperoni pizza, which the friendly and attentive waitress promptly delivered straight from the little steel oven. Dessert was a Hershey bar from the vending machine that was heavenly (although the were out of Hershey's with almonds). All in all, a delightful culinary experience. Four stars all around!!!!

Is it too early to start coming up with ideas for April Fool's Day? Or an April Fool's Week Top 10? Because that could be a lot of fun.

You could do something like the top 10 places to get Natty Boh, top 10 chains (White Castle, Taco Bell, etc.), top 10 inauthentic burritos (Royal Farms, 7-11, etc.), top 10 snooty restaurants, top 10 places to dump a soon to be ex or top 10 table clothes.

I'm probably still jet lagged.

I'm ready. It will appear March 31, though, so probably people won't get it. EL

I second Sammy's. Haven't been in the while but I had a great meal there. Homemade duck ravioli. Yum.

RayRay,
You forgot to tell us what your beer pairings were for that fine alley meal.

Hi Ms. Large,

Ready for you whenever you get a chance.

Jason

One problem with doing a Top 10 list about Baltimore restaurants week after week is that -- as Other Reviewer Richard once so wisely pointed out -- good restaurants do a lot of things very well; that's what makes them good.

I nominate this as Fearless Sentence of the Week (grammar/punctuation category).

I don't know what the Sun's style rules say about dashes, but ever since I started using Texter I am in love with the en dash "–". Now I just type the double hyphen "--" and it replaces it on the fly with "–".

Texter is a free download.

Shout out to RtSO: Ever since I downloaded SnagIt I use it all the time. It's terrific. I think there's a free version too.

Thank you. I try to use things that are just on the edge of being really annoying to our copy desk chief. Dashes would fall into that category. However, wouldn't a double hyphen create an em dash? That was the look I was going for. EL

"...wouldn't a double hyphen create an em dash?"

Unfortunately, no. If you look at your use you will see a small white space between the two hyphens. If you look at a true "en dash" ( – ) or "em dash" ( — ) and contrast them with a single hyphen ( - ) or double hyphen ( -- ) you can see the difference.

EL,
I believe MS Word converts the double hyphen to an em dash if you have that option selected in the Auto Correct menus; Its in the "Auto Format as you type" window.

The editing program I use here at work allows me to toggle between em dashes, en dashes, and regular dashes with repeated pushes of the - key.

Unfortunately, Copy Desk Chief is off this week. He told Wordville where he's gone, but he'll be on WYPR at noon tomorrow, discussing Grammar Day. (Couldn't type for a moment, there, while the voices in my head sang in rounds)

The Owl Meat Style Guide has no official rules for dashes – just dashing. I just finished updating the sections on ascots, baccarat tipping etiquette, and the proper way to release doves into a room before making an entrance.

أطهر الناس أعراقاً أحسنهم أخلاقاً
(The purest people are the ones with good manners.)

I was driving to work today and there was a beat up rusty old Dumpster on the back of truck and it said "Owl Metals" At first glance I thought it said Owl Meat. Your in my head, you pretentious bastard.
Posted by: Hellp | December 17, 2008 10:59 AM

Just cheering myself up.

What are the appropriate uses for em and en dashes? I programmed -- to be an en because it looks cool, but I don't know if it's appropriate.

Wikipedia has a really good article on en-dashes, em-dashes and such.

Wikipedia has a really good article on en-dashes, em-dashes and such.

If it's accurate it should really annoy Mr. McIntyre. :-)

I must be in the minority here, not knowing what in the world you folks are talking about. My keyboard has but one "dash" button. En-dashes, em-dashes... I say eff dashes.

I believe an ef-dash would be narrower than an en-dash.

You have a hyphen on your keyboard corndog. If you don't know and ens and ems then you haven't ever been serious about Scrabble. Both great two letter words.