I'll admit it. I get the Chicago Manual of Style's Q&A alerts straight to my inbox. Once a month. I snort at the questions that plagued me a few years ago, mull the ones that still have me stumped. Last month's list included a little reference to Jim Rimmer, a well-loved type designer, caster, letterpress printer, and owner of Pie Tree Press in New Westminster, BC, who passed away this past January. A couple of years ago I had the pleasure of working with Jim on a trade edition of his illustrated memoirs published by Gaspereau Press (and originally published as a limited edition at Pie Tree). Incidentally, it was while working on this project that I found out Jim had also designed the Whistler logo embroidered on the pink sweatshirt I wore for most of grade one. I wouldn't say it's what he'll necessarily be most remembered for, but it was a happy discovery for me.
Here's the question from the CMS Q&A:
Q. Hello, Chicago. You state that “an opening parenthesis should be preceded by a comma or a semicolon only in an enumeration” as in (1) a brown fox, (2) a silver fox. There are no other exceptions. You also say that the same rules apply to brackets. Another editor wants this: New Westminster, BC: Pie Tree Press, [1988]. It looks very wrong to me! I say the comma goes, because the bracketed matter is an interpolation, not part of the original text, and the comma has no function. Therefore the punctuation should be as if that interpolation doesn’t exist.
I would have cut that comma (although Chicago disagrees).
And if you want to know more about Jim Rimmer, there's a brief summary of his work and samples on the
Heavenly Monkey site.
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