Have you seen the quirky grammar advertisements in The Squamish Chief pages over the last few weeks?
It started with a third of a page ad in the April 9 edition of The Chief.
“The correct spacing interval after sentences is two spaces. Disagree? Take out your own ad.
Note: in order to win this debate, you must take out a larger ad than mine.”
It was signed, “a Sea-to-Sky grammarian.”
This first shot across the bow was taken out by West Vancouver’s library director Stephanie Hall, who is the cousin of The Chief’s editor, Jennifer Thuncher.
A witty grammar nerd, Hall did it as a way to support The Chief because she believes in community journalism.
The revenue from ads increases the number of pages in our paper, but also pays journalists’ wages.
The team at The Chief wondered if anyone would respond to her ad, and guessed maybe not.
We were wrong.
A larger ad was placed the following week in support of one space between sentences, followed by a rebuttal ad from Hall that was even larger.
All the while, a Twitter war of sorts between grammar nerds and passionate newspaper supporters has blazed.
Last week, a grammarian from Victoria took out the back page of The Chief to say that both one space and two between sentences can be correct.
Currently, there is a Go Fund Me campaign appropriately titled, “There is only one space after a sentence” that aims to buy a two-page spread in The Chief. It was launched by Bob Kronbauer, editor in chief of our sister paper, Vancouver is Awesome.
This campaign shows that while the issue is serious — the very future of community news is at stake during this pandemic, which has already seen a dozen local newspapers close in its wake — supporting local news doesn’t have to be drab.
Supporting journalism can be competitive, fun and uplifting.
This back and forth exchange has been more than a boost to the print pages and The Chief’s coffers, it has lifted our morale, and it should lift yours too.
Times are tough and will continue to be as recovery gets its sea legs, but there is good all around us in the people who care, who support local businesses, who cheer for frontline workers and who follow pandemic protocols when no one is watching.
It is in the teachers and parents helping kids learn without a school to go to and in the families coming together to support each other in tight financial times.
Our humanity is showing, Squamish, and it is so uplifting.
Thank you to everyone who has joined our membership club, who has bought an advertisement or who is supporting the online Go Fund Me campaign.
We are your paper and we hope to continue to be for decades to come.
