“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.”
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