Sunday, October 08, 2017

grilled cheese and tomato soup

10 comments:

Charles said...

I read the title of this post and, before scrolling down, imagined you tossing some grilled cheese (raclette, maybe?) and a few tomatoes into a blender.

Disappointed.

Kevin Kim said...

There would have been hyphens.

Charles said...

Nobody hyphenates soup names.

Kevin Kim said...

All I need to do is find a single exception to that claim to invalidate it.

Challenge accepted.

Kevin Kim said...

Hyphenated soup names!

Example 1 (although still not properly hyphenated)

Example 2

Example 3

I believe I've made my point, good sir.

Oh, and there's an amusing discussion of "hot dog soup" versus "hot-dog soup" here.

Charles said...

Shall I rephrase? How about this: It is far less common to hyphenate a soup name than not. Since the point of all of this is my disappointment that you did not in fact make a soup consisting of grilled cheese and tomato, I think it's a fair point.

You want a real challenge? Make some actual grilled cheese and tomato soup!

The Maximum Leader said...

Mmmm.. I had a croque monsieur with tomato bisque today and our local French place. Quite tasty.

Was this a true grilled cheese? :)

The Maximum Leader said...

Wouldn't an Oxford comma have helped here? Grilled cheese, and soup.

Kevin Kim said...

Mike,

Technically, it's not an Oxford comma if you have fewer than 3 items in the list. "Grilled cheese and tomato soup" is fairly unambiguous; you kind of have to stretch yourself mentally to argue that it's ambiguous. That said, I realize Charles is just yanking chains, but I'd still like to try his challenge: the cheese in grilled cheese would make a tomato soup cheesier, and bread has been used as a thickener for centuries.

I have to behave myself for the rest of this week as I'm due for a doctor's checkup, but next week, I'll try out Charles's challenge. My immersion blender is going to get a workout.

Kevin Kim said...

Charles,

"How about this: It is far less common to hyphenate a soup name than not."

This is probably because most of the people naming their soups have no idea about proper hyphenation, not because soup names represent a grammatically special category. "Potato lentil soup" is incorrect; "potato-lentil soup" is correct.