The Perils of Punctuation
Today is the ninth annual National Punctuation Day, the fun-filled holiday that reminds America that a semicolon is not a surgical procedure, nor is an ellipsis when the moon moves in front of the sun.
Ignoring my husband’s pleas of “pleeeeease don’t write about punctuation again,” I am reminding you of this date because: 1) I applaud it; and 2) I couldn’t think of anything else to write.
National Punctuation Day reminds me of my favorite late columnist, Herb Caen of San Francisco Chronicle and “Pullet Surprise” winning fame. Caen bestowed deputy status on an Apostrophe Posse of civilian grammarians, endowing them with the authority to make citizens’ arrests for crimes against punctuation.
Like Caen, my pet peeve is the improper use of the apostrophe. When apostrophes are used to make nouns plural (as in “two shirt’s for the price of one” or "come get your video's here"), my usually calm Dr. Jekyll-like persona morphs into Mr. Hyde. My husband will verify this. Regretfully – for the state of my marriage as well as the literacy level of America - this occurs much too often.
And leaves me to wonder: 1) do people not see the green squiggly line on their computer screen which signals grammatical error; and 2) have English teachers been cut out of the education budget altogether?
Perhaps you have read about Old Navy’s recent mishap, printing a line of collegiate and NFL apparel that read “Lets Go” instead of “Let’s Go.” This issue was brought to the Collegiate Licensing Company’s attention which said, in a nutshell, bad grammar is part of the game. In other words, it is OK at a university level to use incorrect punctuation.
This year's National Punctuation Day challenge - writing three sentences correctly using 13 different punctuation marks - revolves around the 2012 presidential election. The highly punctuated paragraph is to campaign for which punctuation mark you believe to be most "presidential.”
I tried to sell the period with my entry, highlighting the period's ability to unify us. Don't we all wish candidates would reach it sooner?
Ignoring my husband’s pleas of “pleeeeease don’t write about punctuation again,” I am reminding you of this date because: 1) I applaud it; and 2) I couldn’t think of anything else to write.
National Punctuation Day reminds me of my favorite late columnist, Herb Caen of San Francisco Chronicle and “Pullet Surprise” winning fame. Caen bestowed deputy status on an Apostrophe Posse of civilian grammarians, endowing them with the authority to make citizens’ arrests for crimes against punctuation.
Like Caen, my pet peeve is the improper use of the apostrophe. When apostrophes are used to make nouns plural (as in “two shirt’s for the price of one” or "come get your video's here"), my usually calm Dr. Jekyll-like persona morphs into Mr. Hyde. My husband will verify this. Regretfully – for the state of my marriage as well as the literacy level of America - this occurs much too often.
And leaves me to wonder: 1) do people not see the green squiggly line on their computer screen which signals grammatical error; and 2) have English teachers been cut out of the education budget altogether?
Perhaps you have read about Old Navy’s recent mishap, printing a line of collegiate and NFL apparel that read “Lets Go” instead of “Let’s Go.” This issue was brought to the Collegiate Licensing Company’s attention which said, in a nutshell, bad grammar is part of the game. In other words, it is OK at a university level to use incorrect punctuation.
This year's National Punctuation Day challenge - writing three sentences correctly using 13 different punctuation marks - revolves around the 2012 presidential election. The highly punctuated paragraph is to campaign for which punctuation mark you believe to be most "presidential.”
I tried to sell the period with my entry, highlighting the period's ability to unify us. Don't we all wish candidates would reach it sooner?
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The Glorious Muddle
Life is messy and it’s also magnificent. Traces of grace can be found in both the mire of daily drudgery & the moments so spectacular that you know it has to God.
Beauty and adventure might be around t ...more
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