Why not subscribe?

Monday, September 21, 2009

Coming up Thursday: National Punctuation Day

“Talk Like a Pirate” day (Sept 19) seems to have receded into oblivion this year.  This is probably a richly deserved oblivion, but perhaps we should still pause to realize that our cultural heritage has lost yet another bit.

 

Coming up, on Sept. 24, is National Punctuation Day!!!!!!!!! http://nationalpunctuationday.com/  

 

This year they are sponsoring a baking contest, which I won’t enter. That’s not me in the photo, although I’m probably nerdy enough to qualify.

 

The NPD people are campaigning to increase acceptance of the serial comma.  A serial comma is a comma used before a coordinating conjunction (such as “and”) before the last item in a series of three or more. For example: The flag is red, white, and blue.

 

They hope to use this to avoid ambiguous sentences, such as this book dedication: “To my parents, Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II.”

 

 

 

No comments:

Post a Comment