It’s National Punctuation Day, everybody! This post is therefore dedicated to all things dotted, quoted, and slashed!
I recently listened to the radio series “Cutting a Dash” that inspired the book “Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation.” It was completely fascinating, not to mention hilarious! And host Lynne Truss is British, making everything that more delightful to listen to. Instead of a plain old “sem-ee coal-uhn,” we are treated to the pronunciation “sem-eye coal-awn.” I was also delighted to hear the opinions of several young British schoolchildren, especially as they tried to describe punctuation such as commas (which they likened to a tiny boomerang).
“Cutting a Dash” is also where I first heard of the poem “Apostrophe” by Roger McGough. I find it absolutely charming, and hope to memorize it soon so I can spout it off during a lull of conversation and impress everyone around me with my ability to recall enchanting little poems off the top of my head, and also with my appreciation for things like funny poems, and also apostrophes. Without further ado, I give you “Apostrophe.”
twould be nice to be
If you enjoy punctuation humor (and I do believe it has its own genre!), you'll want to check out these blogs:
Here are Five Lessons in Punctuation. No really, it's interesting! You can finally be sure of where to stick those darn quotation marks....
I recently listened to the radio series “Cutting a Dash” that inspired the book “Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation.” It was completely fascinating, not to mention hilarious! And host Lynne Truss is British, making everything that more delightful to listen to. Instead of a plain old “sem-ee coal-uhn,” we are treated to the pronunciation “sem-eye coal-awn.” I was also delighted to hear the opinions of several young British schoolchildren, especially as they tried to describe punctuation such as commas (which they likened to a tiny boomerang).
“Cutting a Dash” is also where I first heard of the poem “Apostrophe” by Roger McGough. I find it absolutely charming, and hope to memorize it soon so I can spout it off during a lull of conversation and impress everyone around me with my ability to recall enchanting little poems off the top of my head, and also with my appreciation for things like funny poems, and also apostrophes. Without further ado, I give you “Apostrophe.”
twould be nice to be
an apostrophe
floating above an s
hovering like a paper kite
in between the its
eavesdropping, tiptoeing
high above the thats
an inky comet
spiralling
the highest tossed of hats
