Thursday, September 24 is National Punctuation Day! Please mark you’re calendars.
***Update***
open thread.
by Tim F| 105 Comments
This post is in: Excellent Links, Open Threads, Blogospheric Navel-Gazing
Thursday, September 24 is National Punctuation Day! Please mark you’re calendars.
***Update***
open thread.
Comments are closed.
chopper
the comment’s for this thread should be fun
The Grand Panjandrum
We don’t celebrate that holiday in our house because talk Like a Pirate day is more fun and not hard also
aaaarrrrrrrrrrrr
ellaesther
Commenter corrections of “you’re” in 3, 2,1….
JeremyH
Its about time, that someone recognized the importance of proper punctuation. Blogger’s really need pay more attention to it, I’m going to as well, now.
Warren Terra
This is excellent news! ! For … somebody! ! 1 ! ! ONE!
(Sorry, the opportunity to use! multiple! exclamation! points! with even some minimal relevance to the post overwhelmed me)
Woodrowfan
Shouldn’t that be..
PLEASE! mark you’re calendar’s! ???
MikeJ
. .
That’s two periods. My sister missed two and my dad shot the gardener.
Corner Stone
I am concerned.
smiley
Commas. When in doubt, do not use.
The Bearded Blogger
I like the English language a lot, but it seems to me it likes the charm that only accentuation such as the german umlaut, the frenchy hats on top of vowels or that weird scandinavian dot above the A can provide.
Also, what’s with these {}? When are you supposed to use them?
MikeJ
Pirate punctuation:
? hook
! peg leg
wasabi gasp
Is it in response to this past Saturday’s Punchunation Day?
licensed to kill time
eat’s, shoot’s leave’s was a good, book?
cleek
@The Bearded Blogger:
you use them to delineate a compound statement, or to provide nested scope:
if (a < 5)
{
format(“C:\\”);
MessageBox(“You lose”);
}
else
{
MessageBox(“You win. This time.”);
}
MikeJ
my $hash_ref = {};
I was hacking perl for a bank in Rome once. Perl is a computer language that people always joke looks like line noise because of all the punctuation. There were things I simply could not say in perl using an Italian keyboard because nobody could figure out how to get the proper symbol. (IIRC, we did eventually get it, but I don’t even remember which mark it was I needed.)
gbear
Does that mean we’re supposed to punch somebody?
Bill E Pilgrim
Shell
I’m waiting for National Sandwich Day-November 3
gbear
Ooops. Late to the punch, so to speak. Wasabi gasp, at 12, beat me to it.
The Bearded Blogger
@ cleek, 14
Thank you, that was very clear and illuminating
JK
Brief reference to the death of Jim Carroll is contained on the website of the St Mark’s Poetry Project
http://poetryproject.org/uncategorized/jim-carroll-1949-2009.html
NY Times obit for Jim Carroll
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/14/books/14carroll.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries
JGabriel
Programming and math proofs. Or if you want to make your parenthetical remarks look Germanic. And squared brackets, [], are for editorial remarks, of course.
.
Zach
Tea Party photo fakers are obviously insensitive to the plight of the American Indian – http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2009/sep/14/tea-party-photo-shows-large-crowd-different-event/
Bill E Pilgrim
@MikeJ:
Ah, the memories. I spent the first days at work in Rome pulling the keys out and rearranging them to match the English keyboard layout I had virtually changed it to. No matter how I try I can’t disregard what it says on the key, since I don’t really touch type but more like hunt and peck but at100 WPM.
I remember also searching the clqviers frqncqises here for years for the putain ~ key because it was part of my earthlink home page address with all my links on it. I used to have to find one on the Web by Googling “tilde” and copy it.
Linkmeister
National Punctuation Day? thats no fun!
J.W. Hamner
It’s about time the semi-colon was given the recognition it so richly deserves. The dash, however, can burn in hell along with its greatest proponent.
Colette
@The Bearded Blogger:
All I know about those is that I had to spend hours (sorry, hour’s) practicing them in handwriting class, back in the time of the ancients when such a thing was still taught.
that that is is that that is not is not is not that that is not not. Discuss.
Shell
“hat means the picture was taken before the museum opened exactly five years ago. So clearly the photo doesn’t show the “tea party” crowd from the Sept. 12 protest.”
Jeez, they can’t even cheat properly.
Zach
@The Bearded Blogger: Braces are employed to {enclose a set in math, list items of a single unit in writing, function as mustaches in emoticons}.
Incertus
@smiley: I swear to Jeebus, if I ever discover who came up with the notion that “you put a comma where you breathe” as a way to teach grammar to middle-schoolers, I will deliver to said person a planet-shattering kick to the junk or junk-equivalent.
cleek
we need a national “ironic” quotes day !
Martin
My son asked me about that rule last year, if there was a similar one for semicolons. I told him there was – you put in a semicolon where you fart.
I told him that was a reminder to how stupid the comma/breathe rule was.
Punchy
Watt ever. Just because ewe think your punkcueayeshun and speling is better then mine doesnt may cue a smarter. Blogger in the end. All it makes you! Is a smartass?
Colette
@cleek: Every day of the Bush presidency was National Ironic Quotes Day, in the sense that every quote from that motherfucker really meant the opposite of its literal meaning.
Warren Terra
@ Cleek, #31
We “need” a national “ironic” quotes day!
… or …
“We” “need” a national “ironic” quotes “day”!
Stop me before I use “ironic” quotation marks again!
wasabi gasp
There she is! {{{gazonga}}}
MK
@Incertus:
How’d you go from college freshpeople to middle-schoolers (the impression I got from your previous posts was that you were involved with undergraduate programs)? Or are you some kind of remedial instructor for all ages?
In other news, all is well in my Zen Garden. I can rest easy now.
KRK
@J.W. Hamner: Yes.
John Cole is just waiting for National Punch You in the Neck Day. Then everybody had better watch out.
The Moar You Know
Every day should be National Punctuation Day.
Eunoia
In Dschermanie, ve also haff ze umLAUT ;-)
freelancer
Wow%
This- is like that post by admin/kind of?
Crashman06
National punctuation day is elitist real americans dont celebrate punctuation WOLVERINES ALSO
Nate
Long time reader, first time poster.
Have to say this made me chortle.
You’res truly,
Nate
scarshapedstar
I hope they don’t leave out the peculiar conventions of punctuation in the Deep South, like the use of quotation marks for emphasis, which gives us such hilarities as:
“Free” Samples
Weekend “Sale”
“50% Off” All Items
Discount “Today Only”
No matter how long I live here, I’ll always do a double-take when I see signs like that. Do they teach that in school? Where did it come from? And does NOBODY comprehend the subtle irony that almost always results?
MikeJ
I love you period.
Incertus
@MK: I teach the college fresh-people, but they learn about comma usage in middle school, or they’re supposed to anyway. That’s where the initial damage is done, I suspect. It might also come from Education Departments, but I don’t really want to get into that debate.
falloch
As a freelance copy-editor and proofreader, I want you to know that I had a nervous breakdown reading these posts, and am about to retire to a darkened room. On the other hand, if you need a proofreader for any projects, let me know. Teabaggers need not apply…
JK
Apostrophe by Frank Zappa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkVVtB2vLBo
Who say rock musicians don’t care about punctuation?
MK
@falloch:
Can you proofread from right to left? If so, you’re hired.
Little Macayla's Friend
also coencedentaly its internateonal saruh Palen Day. Full detales hear also:
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/07/palin-speech-edit-200907
Svensker
@falloch:
Teabaggers need not apply…
I think you meant: Teabagger’s need “not” apply unless there language skill’s are good. If, you asked Sarah Palin also her and I agree would with that. Amirite?
slag
@cleek: That would be the day Fox finally puts quotation marks around News.
GBEAR
@Warren Terra:
I could “get behind” that.
HOW ABOUT NATIONAL ALL CAPS DAY!!
freelancer
In honor of National Punctuation Day,
I give y’all http://wordsplosion.com
It’s failblog for Grammar Nerds.
Punchy
@JGabriel: [ ] is molarity, beeyotches. Not to be confused with molality or morality.
Tax Analyst
@ #2 The Grand Panjandrum, aye, he said this:
“We don’t celebrate that holiday in our house because talk Like a Pirate day is more fun and not hard also
aaaarrrrrrrrrrrr”
Aye matey, but in me house, we be pronouncin’ it “Haaaarrrrrrrr”. Ye can speak as ye wish, aye, an’ not to be too personal, but a “Haaarrrr” without the “H”, well, I might be mistak’n ye fer some weak old woman or mayhaps a sniv’lin, squallin’ child.
Thoughtcrime
The Great Dane and Dean Martin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7L02tCNi0I&feature=related
General Winfield Stuck
I’m hindin’ out till it blows’ o’ver/
General Winfield Stuck
How about word day.
tamied
@Warren Terra: I really “like” the random “quotation” marks you especially “see” on handmade “signs”.
Martin
Prepare to be entertained.
Check the blogroll for apostrophe and other fetishes.
Interrobang
Yay, an entire day all about meeee!
MK — I actually can proofread from right to left. I will proofread English in any direction at my normal rates, plus a small inconvenience surcharge. For Hebrew, though, you pay extra. A lot extra. :)
MK
I would like a “National No Silent Letters Day”. That way, I could spell ‘wrong’ ‘rong’ and increase my typing efficiency by 9.8032% when arguing with RedState or Malkin followers.
MikeJ
@MK: Don’t go all shavian on us, I don’t have the fonts installed on this computer.
Poopyman
Svensker,
Shouldn’t there be ironic quotes around “skill’s”? Because the crux of the biscuit is the apostrophe.
MK
@Interrobang:
I don’t believe your claims. Here is a test.
میرا نام جن کول ہے
General Winfield Stuck
That would be National PUnchuation Day. Which happens to fall on National Spelling Day. Everything is connected.
Poopyman
If they ever come up with an “International Air Quotes Day”, then I will take that to mean it’s also “National Punch You in the Neck Day” and act accordingly.
scav
Quick, to the footnoterphone! We need Jurisfiction! Bad infestation of bookworm’s here. Not sure if they inevitably lead to grammarsites but you really really don’t want to have to break out the Danvers clones.
Crashman06
Everyone must read takedown of Ayn Rand’s disgusting philosophy of Objectivism.
scav
and how can we have made it to comment 67 without noting that every day is Tunchuation Day here. Or should be.
freelancer
Last night I watched the Rifftrax for Fast & Furious (the 3rd sequel), and nearly peed myself when Kevin Murphy (aka Tom Servo) did a little rap about halfway through the movie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJPt6KvecDQ
The Bearded Blogger
@ 27 Parmenides is even more confusing without punctuation
@ 32 I teach writing at a college level. That dumbshit rule may be the death of me
I had forgotten all about the interrobang. It sucks.
Sad_Dem
National Punctuation Day festivities will include a rap music show in Davenport, Iowa, featuring the year’s hottest “proper punctuation positive” raps, including Dr. Mark’s “Don’t You Comma Splice,” delivered by Dr. Mark himself. But that’s not all! In Washington, D.C., the National Punctuation Museum will have its opening day reception, in which noted copy editors from around the country will lead tour groups around the museum’s “happening” displays, including a diorama on the Lost Em Dash (When We Lose the Em Dash, We Lose Everything) and the Semicolon in World War I. Don’t miss it!
MikeJ
@Sad_Dem: I’m less concerned about the loss of the em dash than I am about the diaeresis. We’re down to just me and The New Yorker. Let’s get coördinated, people!
falloch
‘Svensker,
I think you meant: Teabagger’s need “not” apply unless there language skill’s are good. If, you asked Sarah Palin also her and I agree would with that. Amirite?
Shouldn’t there be ironic quotes around “skill’s”? Because the crux of the biscuit is the apostrophe.’
Y’know folks – I’ve been an a diet for a couple of months now, but that’s it – I’m going off to make apostrophe biscuits (well, cookies to you Amurricans), and eat them while quietly despairing (but also drinking Fairtrade Guatemalan cloud forest coffee) – ain’t no moose in them Guatemalan cloud forests, ex-Gov. Palin!
Sad_Dem
@MikeJ: Sorry, dude, it’s gone, just let it go. The diaeresis belongs to 80s heavy metal bands. You can’t even say the word around the office anymore, at least not from 9-5.
slag
@MikeJ: I may be naive, but I don’t think we’ll be reevaluating use of the diaeresis anytime soon. However, I strongly support preempting the demise of the em dash.
Oh yeah. It’s on.
MikeJ
When Obama opens the reëducation camps you diaeresis haters will be singing a different tune.
Jacquelyn
Wasn’t it J.D. Salinger who offered up a bouquet of (((())))?
MikeJ
please accept from me this unpretentious bouquet of very early-blooming parentheses: (((()))).
Which would explain why in Catcher Holden drunkenly calls Sally Hayes and says he wants to see her cdr. (lisp joke – ask a geek.)
Sad_Dem
Obama’s camps with forcéd hand most rude
will mark improvement to yo’ attitude,
and learnst there thou wilt of punctuation’s
sublime measures made upon our nation’s
speech…
General Winfield Stuck
Marsha Blackburn is on Hardball bringing the wingnut whine cause mean libs are calling Tea Baggers racist/
She wants us to be more civil so the discourse can be respectful/ Well kiss my ass, shitheels are shitheels/ No way to soften that.
Steeplejack
As a former editor, typographer and typesetter, I am moved to tears by this thread. Not in a good way.
slag
@MikeJ: Nice. But I have no particular affinity for the en dash. The em dash–looking oh so lengthy–takes preeminence in my heart.
Steeplejack
@MikeJ:
“Shavian” is my all-time favorite–and least used–literary adjective. I’ve been waiting years to use “his Shavian wit . . .” somewhere.
Steeplejack
@MikeJ:
P.S. Don’t know if you saw my comment last week, but I bought Revolver rather than Rubber Soul after talking with you.
Steeplejack
A typographical thing that really gets me is the way people put on their mailboxes “The Smith’s.” See this a lot in almost-rural neighborhoods where the mailboxes are at the street, also in beachside and lakeside “vacation home” communities. Always right next to a house called “Pine Haven” or “Sand Dollar,” depending on the venue.
Steeplejack
@scav:
Oh noes, not the Danvers clones!
Sad_Dem
Dear General: Your virgules are soo….Laurentian.
Steeplejack
@MikeJ:
Damn you, sir! Any examination of the Balloon Juice archives will show that I am a dedicated diaeresistician.
Steeplejack
@MikeJ:
Right on, brö!
Jonathan
i Cant stop counting teh day’s until then’s.
PhoenixRising
freelancer, I curse you. I will never work again.
Can we “all” agree, that “quotes” and, commas, are tied for the most annoying form of punctuation abuse?
Mickey
Marsha Blackburn Voted FOR: Omnibus Appropriations, Special Education, Global AIDS Initiative, Job Training, Unemployment Benefits, Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations, Agriculture Appropriations, U.S.-Singapore Trade, U.S.-Chile Trade, Supplemental Spending for Iraq & Afghanistan, Prescription Drug Benefit, Child Nutrition Programs, Surface Transportation, Job Training and Worker Services, Agriculture Appropriations, Foreign Aid, Vocational/Technical Training, Supplemental Appropriations, UN “Reforms.” Patriot Act Reauthorization, CAFTA, Katrina Hurricane-relief Appropriations, Head Start Funding, Line-item Rescission, Oman Trade Agreement, Military Tribunals, Electronic Surveillance, Head Start Funding, COPS Funding, Funding the REAL ID Act (National ID), Foreign Intelligence Surveillance, Thought Crimes “Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, Peru Free Trade Agreement, Economic Stimulus, Farm Bill (Veto Override), Warrantless Searches, Employee Verification Program, Body Imaging Screening.
Marsha Blackburn Voted AGAINST:
Ban on UN Contributions, eliminate Millennium Challenge Account, WTO Withdrawal, UN Dues Decrease, Defunding the NAIS, Iran Military Operations defunding Iraq Troop Withdrawal, congress authorization of Iran Military Operations.
Marsha Blackburn is my Congressman.
See her unconstitutional votes at :
http://tinyurl.com/qhayna
Mickey
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Punctshoeation iz overated, just like speling. Moran’s find its eazier to gess becuz that wuznt coverred in home scooling. Its awl moms’ fault!
Tattoosydney
What a whole thread on punctuation without any tildes?
Shãme!
Steeplejack
@Tattoosydney:
Nor any çedillas!
Tattoosydney
@Steeplejack:
A ausência de pontuação gratuita nesta linha é uma causa para muita vergonha e um símbolo do Anglocéntrism deste blogue.
Steeplejack
@Tattoosydney:
Hey, don’t be bringing it with your weird, foreign, accent-inflected lingo here, mister. Next you’ll be telling me that this blog is too, uh, English-centric or something like that. Hmmph.
Tattoosydney
@Steeplejack:
One of the things I love about Portuguese is that you can read it even if you don’t speak a word of it…. and the abundance of tildes.
cosanostradamus
Eh, brah. What one Pahtagee say to one nadda Pahtagee?
Nutting, braddah, dey not speakin’.
That should get you started on this: “HATE IN THE ALOHA STATE”
.
bago
@JGabriel: Or for indexer notation, which caused a HUGE security hole in Flash for a year or so.
bago
@wasabi gasp: I believe that gazongas are a man-handled attempt at recursion using functional calls and this: symbol(.)(.)
bago
@bago: Unless you shift your perspective to the left and C only this: (->)(->)
Undecorated to be sure.