punctuation Archives - The Steve Laube Agency

Fun Fridays – September 24, 2021

Today is National Punctuation Day!

Established by Jeff Rubin in 2004, it is a “celebration of the lowly comma, correctly used quotation marks, and other proper uses of periods, semicolons, and the ever mysterious ellipsis.”

Please visit the official site: www.nationalpunctuationday.com.

Recently, I walked into a church classroom to find a list of the 10 Commandments on the board. The first line read “No other God’s.”
Sigh.

So while you take a moment to appreciate the need for precise punctuation, enjoy this delightful five-minute repartee between Dean Martin and Victor Borge singing with Phonetic Punctuation. The video is a bit blurry as it must have been clipped from an old video tape or similar. But hilarious nonetheless!

(If you cannot see the embedded video in your newsletter email, please click the headline and go directly to our site to view it. Or go to it’s native address: https://youtu.be/ecOGlZ-XAs4.)

To Comma or Not to Comma?

I came across this entry in Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss. The book is a classic on punctuation. (Although based on British English usage, it is still a great book.) On his deathbed in April 1991, Graham Green corrected and signed a typed document which restricts access to his papers at Georgetown University. Or does it? The document, before correction, stated: “I, Graham Greene, …

Spell Checking

Shortly after I became a book editor, I was working on a nonfiction manuscript that focused on Mormonism. When I finished editing, I ran the spell check. Imagine my reaction when the dear spell check wanted to replace every Mormon with moron and Mormonism with Moronism!

Since those long ago days, spell check has invaded countless emails, files, and text messages. As much as we appreciate it …