I admit it...

[Slaky]

...I should have never gotten into this flame war.

I'm proceeding on the assumption that anyone who would get particularly exercised over the matter should be dismissed out of hand.

I'm going to parse this as: "You're boring us, Gil."

Or "Call us when you singlehandedly destroy the entire politics section on the CHUD forums, Gil."

Via sophistry?

(There is only one answer to this non-rhetorical rhetorical question)

Natch.

Ah, it just feels good when the Internet works as it should.

[Tinker to Evers to Chance]

....I've been horribly, horribly wrong for 20 years.

[Saul Goodman]

....I've been horribly, horribly wrong for 20 years.

I'm making sure I use two spaces from now on just to piss off this douche writer.  Especially since the main point -- that two spaces harm readability -- is promptly torpedoed when you follow the pageview-whoring break:

Typographers can point to no studies or any other evidence proving that single spaces improve readability. When you press them on it, they tend to cite their aesthetic sensibilities. As Jury says, "It's so bloody ugly."

But I actually think aesthetics are the best argument in favor of one space over two. One space is simpler, cleaner, and more visually pleasing (it also requires less work, which isn't nothing). A page of text with two spaces between every sentence looks riddled with holes; a page of text with an ordinary space looks just as it should.

Naturally, no proof always makes for the most convincing argument.  But what if I think a page of text with two spaces looks just as it should, and single-spaced text looks crammed together and harder to read?

Is this arbitrary? Sure it is.

Was this (like most of Slate) a total waste of time?       Yes it was.

[Wheezer]

....I've been horribly, horribly wrong for 20 years.

Farhad Manjoo should saw his fucking head off with a pica stick. The argument to "a fellow who's been using computers since at least the mid-1980s" unfortunately commits the astonishing stupidity of overlooking that E-mail in the early and mid '80s was almost universally viewed in monospce "type." (Mine still is. Sorry if the Comic Sans was supposed to carry part of the meaning, asshole.)

Typographers and typesetters, to the extent that they meaningfully persist in the world, don't give a shit, as the whole point is transformation of the copy in the first place. "Two spaces" doesn't mean anything unless your "typesetting system" is justifying text on a Selectric. The fact that this bit of idiocy actually got indexed in the 15th MoS I take as a personal embarrassment.

[Eli]

....I've been horribly, horribly wrong for 20 years.

What galls me about two-spacers isn't just their numbers. It's their certainty that they're right. Over Thanksgiving dinner last year, I asked people what they considered to be the "correct" number of spaces between sentences.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.Now, let me grill you about proper typography.

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

.... I need to move to Chicago. As I was walking from Wrigley to Halsted & Clark today, the female quality that I saw out today was amazing. Those tights that girls are wearing as pants are amazing. I can only imagine how great it would be to be here during summer with those amazing sundresses. Downstate blows

Halsted & Clark, eh?  Would have loved to have heard that you picked one up and found a dong underneath those girls pants.

[Yeti]

.... I need to move to Chicago. As I was walking from Wrigley to Halsted & Clark today, the female quality that I saw out today was amazing. Those tights that girls are wearing as pants are amazing. I can only imagine how great it would be to be here during summer with those amazing sundresses. Downstate blows

Halsted & Clark, eh?  Would have loved to have heard that you picked one up and found a dong underneath those girls pants.

Well, the best tail I saw was up by Wrigley but there was some nice shit at the Sports Authority as well

[Bort]

.... I need to move to Chicago. As I was walking from Wrigley to Halsted & Clark today, the female quality that I saw out today was amazing. Those tights that girls are wearing as pants are amazing. I can only imagine how great it would be to be here during summer with those amazing sundresses. Downstate blows

Halsted & Clark, eh?  Would have loved to have heard that you picked one up and found a dong underneath those girls pants.

At the Borders?

[Gilgamesh]

.... I need to move to Chicago. As I was walking from Wrigley to Halsted & Clark today, the female quality that I saw out today was amazing. Those tights that girls are wearing as pants are amazing. I can only imagine how great it would be to be here during summer with those amazing sundresses. Downstate blows

Halsted & Clark, eh?  Would have loved to have heard that you picked one up and found a dong underneath those girls pants.

At the Borders?

What would Yeti be doing at a Borders, except for finding directions away from there?

[Bort]

.... I need to move to Chicago. As I was walking from Wrigley to Halsted & Clark today, the female quality that I saw out today was amazing. Those tights that girls are wearing as pants are amazing. I can only imagine how great it would be to be here during summer with those amazing sundresses. Downstate blows

Halsted & Clark, eh?  Would have loved to have heard that you picked one up and found a dong underneath those girls pants.

At the Borders?

What would Yeti be doing at a Borders, except for finding directions away from there?

Looking for nudie mags?

[Yeti]

.... I need to move to Chicago. As I was walking from Wrigley to Halsted & Clark today, the female quality that I saw out today was amazing. Those tights that girls are wearing as pants are amazing. I can only imagine how great it would be to be here during summer with those amazing sundresses. Downstate blows

Halsted & Clark, eh?  Would have loved to have heard that you picked one up and found a dong underneath those girls pants.

At the Borders?

What would Yeti be doing at a Borders, except for finding directions away from there?

Looking for nudie mags?

My aunt mentioned that there was one there but I didn't notice it. I went to the Sports Authority and Marshall's. If I saw it I would have gone in there. I was walking down Clark with no purpose until I got there. I was just walking for the hell of it

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

.... I need to move to Chicago. As I was walking from Wrigley to Halsted & Clark today, the female quality that I saw out today was amazing. Those tights that girls are wearing as pants are amazing. I can only imagine how great it would be to be here during summer with those amazing sundresses. Downstate blows

Halsted & Clark, eh?  Would have loved to have heard that you picked one up and found a dong underneath those girls pants.

At the Borders?

Borders is at Clark and Diversey, NotRandMcNally.

[Tinker to Evers to Chance]

.... I need to move to Chicago. As I was walking from Wrigley to Halsted & Clark today, the female quality that I saw out today was amazing. Those tights that girls are wearing as pants are amazing. I can only imagine how great it would be to be here during summer with those amazing sundresses. Downstate blows

Halsted & Clark, eh?  Would have loved to have heard that you picked one up and found a dong underneath those girls pants.

At the Borders?

What would Yeti be doing at a Borders, except for finding directions away from there?

Looking for nudie mags?

My aunt mentioned that there was one there but I didn't notice it. I went to the Sports Authority and Marshall's. If I saw it I would have gone in there. I was walking down Clark with no purpose until I got there. I was just walking for the hell of it

So, your aunt told you that there was a nudie mag at Borders, but you didn't notice it because you were cruising for trim in the "young Adult" section.

[Bort]

.... I need to move to Chicago. As I was walking from Wrigley to Halsted & Clark today, the female quality that I saw out today was amazing. Those tights that girls are wearing as pants are amazing. I can only imagine how great it would be to be here during summer with those amazing sundresses. Downstate blows

Halsted & Clark, eh?  Would have loved to have heard that you picked one up and found a dong underneath those girls pants.

At the Borders?

Borders is at Clark and Diversey, NotRandMcNally.

Fuck, you're right. I was thinking of Broadway.

Actually, the corner of Halsted and Diversey is what, a PetCo?

[thehawk]

.... I need to move to Chicago. As I was walking from Wrigley to Halsted & Clark today, the female quality that I saw out today was amazing. Those tights that girls are wearing as pants are amazing. I can only imagine how great it would be to be here during summer with those amazing sundresses. Downstate blows

Halsted & Clark, eh?  Would have loved to have heard that you picked one up and found a dong underneath those girls pants.

At the Borders?

Borders is at Clark and Diversey, NotRandMcNally.

Fuck, you're right. I was thinking of Broadway.

Actually, the corner of Halsted and Diversey is what, a PetCo?

KFC Walgreens Dentist Office etc