Standing since Saturday, still in need of one more hyphen:
But it is already clear that Mr. Trump’s wild swings — from optimism to frustration and anger, from deescalation to escalation — have combined to give his management of the war an erratic, make-it-up-as-it goes feel.*
A way around the awkwardness of the hyphens (all necessary to the phrase) and “feel”:
But it is already clear that Mr. Trump’s wild swings — from optimism to frustration and anger, from deescalation to escalation — have combined to make his management of the war appear erratic and unplanned.I didn’t think of tinkering again until someone asked in a comment about putting the phrase in quotation marks instead of using hyphens.
Related reading
All OCA New York Times “sheesh” posts (Pinboard)
[I wouldn’t fault anyone for a typo, but typos can always be corrected.]
comments: 4
Would you consider bypassing hyphens entirely and putting the whole shebang in quotes?
No, I’d add another hyphen. I think it’s better not to put more casual language or slang in quotation marks, unless you’re signaling that it’s someone else’s. E.g., His peers pronounced him “cool.”
The hyphenated version gives the phrase a chaotic, frenetic (dare I say, helter-skelter) feel. I like it.
Helter-skelter fits well!
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