When we were in Montreal earlier in the month, we spent a very pleasant hour browsing through the Drawn & Quarterly Store in Mile End. One the books I bought was the illustrated edition of the Elements of Style. It’s a beautiful book, and it’s also very useful: I hope it will, in time, cure me of my that/which issues.

In the spirit of the book, here’s a brief guide to elements of style more locally:

1. Rukavina is pronounced with a long u. Think duty, not duck. Like it says here, roo-ka-VEEN-a. Or, if you like, roo-KA-veen-a.
2. When speaking, I refer to this blog as “r — u — k dot c — a”, spelled out, like “check out my blog at r — u — k dot c — a”. If it must be pronounced, it’s also with a long u.
3. While this blog is based on a nickname applied to me by my 9th grade gym teacher, ruk is the name of the blog, it’s not my name. So proper usage is “Peter said…” and not “ruk said…”
4. Like ee cummings, silverorange and the fifth estate, it’s always all lowercase: ruk, not Ruk or RUK. This is sometimes inconvenient, and I’m not sure what to tell you about how to start sentences.
5. While my last name does start with an R, that’s the only thing that it has in common with the last name Roggeveen. As such, I cannot sell you a Christmas tree.