Mon - Fri   9am to 5pm   Eastern Time		Obituary: Mary Newton Bruder / 'The Grammar Lady' helped us watch our language Wednesday, August 18, 2004 By Adrian McCoy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Mary Newton Bruder kept a watchful eye over the ways the English language is used -- and misused. Better known to many as "The Grammar Lady," she was a unique resource for those baffled by the distinction between "can" vs. "may" and "who" vs. "whom." Mrs. Bruder, of Mt. Lebanon, died suddenly on Monday. The cause was respiratory/cardiac failure. She was 64. A native of Cortland, N.Y., she lived in Boston before moving to Pittsburgh. In the 1960s, she taught English and French at public schools in New York and Massachusetts. She did her graduate work at the University of Pittsburgh, where she earned master's and doctoral degrees in linguistics. Mrs. Bruder taught linguistics at the University of Pittsburgh and at Chatham College. Mrs. Bruder turned a keen eye for the fine points of the English language and grammar into her "Grammar Lady" persona. In 1988, she established the Grammar Hot Line -- one of a network of hot lines established in a nationwide effort to promote literacy. Mrs. Bruder fielded questions from people who needed help with grammar, punctuation and proper word usage. In 1989, she began writing a weekly freelance "Grammar Lady" column in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and several other daily newspapers. Originally the column and the hot line were resources for office personnel researching proper word usage in business documents. But the column began to draw others who shared her fascination with language and its subtleties -- occasionally sparking spirited debate in the letters to the editor section. Her columns were as entertaining as they were educational, with questions and answers and a regular segment on amusing typographical errors that slip through spell-checking software. Readers and those who called the hot line received answers that were at once serious and humorous. "Although she believed passionately in maintaining the standards of correct grammar, she was never a tyrant," said her friend Penny Hughes. "She answered inquiries with directness and a sense of humor." Her daughter, Mary Beth Bruder of Mt. Lebanon, also recalled her sense of humor. "She found humor in a lot of things. I'm glad I got a chance to know her as an adult. She was a mother and a friend." In 1997, she launched a Web site -- grammarlady.com. The site was designed, as she put it, "to be helpful, to raise consciousness about correct language use, and to remind everyone of the ways to have fun with language." Mrs. Bruder traveled extensively, conducting workshops and seminars in teaching English as a foreign language in Egypt, Morocco, Senegal and Argentina. She was the author of numerous books and articles on topics related to language and linguistics. While most were scholarly publications, "Much Ado About A Lot: How to Mind Your Grammar in Print and in Person" -- later released in paperback as "The Grammar Lady" -- was written for the general public. Besides her daughter, Mrs. Bruder is survived by her mother, Gertrude Newton, of Homer, N.Y.; and a brother, Dan Newton, of Burlingame, Calif. Visitation will be tomorrow from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. at Laughlin Memorial Chapel, 222 Washington Road, Mt. Lebanon. Services and interment will be private. Memorial donations may be made to Animal Friends, 2643 Penn Ave., Pittsburgh 15222. HOT TOPICS SUPPORT THE GRAMMAR LADY SITE GET THE ANSWERS YOU NEED My user-friendly reference "Dear Grammar Lady" makes a great stocking stuffer. It contains sections on subjunctive/conditional (If it was/were), I/me/myself, subject-verb agreement, etc.; and it has an index, so it's easy to use. Send a check in the amount of $13.00, which includes postage and handling (U.S. and Canada--US dollars, please), to Mary Bruder at 246 Washington Rd. Pittsburgh, PA 15216 or call the toll-free hotline (800 279-9708) with a Visa or Master card number for same-day service. Amazon.com Associate New visitors, please note that anything you buy on-line from Amazon generates a percentage to me when you use the Amazon link from my site. If you are ordering books or gifts on-line, please consider using my site. If you order a book reviewed in my bookstore and click to Amazon using the specific link, Amazon gives me a larger percentage of the cost. The newsletter (Vol. 3, No. 12) is current. At this time it is impossible to send it by post or to send back copies. Anyone who wants to sponsor the newsletter can contact me on line or by phone. QUESTION THAT REQUIRED RESEARCH Dear Grammar Lady: Here's a possible answer: Monkeys wore little hats like Curious George when they worked with the Hurdy Gurdy man - a street musician of old. They would take off the hat and hold it out for folks to put money into it. The little hats look similar to the dish now known as "monkey dish." That's one of the most plausible explanations we've had. Too bad there's no documentation
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