Usually fish are in the water now they are falling out of the sky

Here's an extract from a recent Telegraph.co.uk article called Australian town, 326 miles from river, hit by raining fish. Check out the quote from Joe Ashley, 55:

Extract from Telegraph article about raining fish

Harry Campbell sent this one in to The Engine Room, and he asks: "Is punctuation now rationed at the Daily Telegraph?"

If anything, I think the lack of punctuation conveys a rather appropriate sense of panic on the part of Joe Ashley. I'd be panicked if I thought crocodiles might start dropping out of the sky...

6 comments:

Harry Campbell said...

They spoiled the stream-of-consciousness effect a bit with the tabloid-style unnecessary para break and paradoxically-scrupulous use of quotation marks. Perhaps they shd have gone the whole hog with something like "Itcouldbecrocodilesthatwouldberealscaryomigodwhasthatupthererunrunforyourlivesboys!!!!"

Gloom Raider said...

Perhaps "Joe Ashley" is a pseudonym for Gertrude Stein?

The Ridger, FCD said...

What? It's a perfectly well-formed sentence with a restrictive clause in the conditional, to match the main clause. Scary crocodiles could fall from the sky! Really scary ones!

TootsNYC said...

Do you suppose that was lifted straight from a text or e-mail? And maybe they don't want to edit, even if that helps it make sense?

JD (The Engine Room) said...

TootsNYC - that crossed my mind too. But there's also a comma missing after 'Jabiru' so I think it's just an editorial lapse.

Harry - I agree with you!

Stan Carey said...

This is brilliant — it lends a breathless sense of urgency and near-hysteria to the report. More news stories should use stream-of-consciousness quotes.