Punctuation Day Much Grander Than Grandparent’s Day

Once again Punctuation Day is upon us. (9/24) Those of you who make a living as writers should, pause! take a. deep breath (and be glad’ there are little marks~ among the * written words that “give” readers; some guidance on how: to navigate… your prose?

Punctuation marks have been bastardized by the texting crowd. `:-) :-(` etc. Which is really too bad because these seeming insignificant marks are far to important to convey emotions rather than convey emotions.

(huh?)

Here’s the odd part, the people that use Twitter - often called micro-blogging - are stuck because they are limited to 140 characters.

Never fear, a service has popped up to allow all kinds of symbols to be used in Twitter.

So instead of saying “Cutting out too. To take a night flight to doctor. Death is Peace. Cut a fart, must go number two.”

I would tweet…

It’s a drag and drop type deal but I can’t read the symbols, so it’s a bust. Nice try fellas, but lets not abandon the good old punctuation marks that can give us such great art as this:

I did this as an image rather than the code because I have some very cool Mac friends and I guess Mac doesn’t recognize the code and WordPress makes it difficult and that’s that, so bug off.

Punctuation Day is like Grandparent’s Day. It was started to further a commercial venture. Jeff Rubin runs Punctuation Playtime(R) and launched Punctuation Day to get some publicity. As far as commercial holidays go? I’ll take Punctuation Day over Grandparent’s Day. It’s just a matter of little guy idea, vs. giant corporation manipulation.

Just to settle your Punctuation Day, enjoy a little Punctation Rap - not too dissimilar to Conjunction Junction!

7 Responses to “Punctuation Day Much Grander Than Grandparent’s Day”

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1 Gretchen
Sep 23rd, 2008 at 2:31 pm

I love punctuation. I’m a big fan of the semicolon, as you may have noticed.

A lawyer at my office and I once sang Conjunction Junction out loud together at work because he was trying to figure out if a particular word was a conjunction.

Gretchens last blog post..Surf City USA.
2 George Hollis
Sep 23rd, 2008 at 5:21 pm

I think most babyboomers are from the ‘old school’. I have found it hard to not use punctuation. Just seems unnatural.

Boomer
3 Gretchen
Sep 23rd, 2008 at 5:43 pm

I’m actually very judgmental of people’s grammar, punctuation, spelling and capitalization in blogs, comments and so on. I find it impossible to read anyone who can’t write coherently. So yeah, I guess old school. I still respect the English language.

Gretchens last blog post..Surf City USA.
4 goinglikesixty
Sep 23rd, 2008 at 6:18 pm

@Gretchen: how cool that he could sing the song! re: typos etc., I guess my blog is the exception that proves the rule. Nancy is always giving me fits about typos after I publish. She abhors typos.

@George: absolutely. I dOn’T KNoW hOW the KidS UsE UPPer and LowER case mixed up. Forget the texting shorthand!
5 Gretchen
Sep 23rd, 2008 at 7:03 pm

Dude, if it’s any consolation, I’m constantly updating my blog posts because I’m unhappy with the punctuation or what. I see very few typos on your blog! Why do you think I’m your #1 fan?

Gretchens last blog post..Surf City USA.
6 Hermosa Beach Day Spa
Oct 27th, 2008 at 4:04 pm

That is a worthwhile shortcut to get out the info you want over networks like Twitter. It’s hard enough to comprehend what my niece texts to me every once in a while. I suppose this is a bit more cut-throat as far as understanding. If one doesn’t get what the symbol is, maybe there’s a chart somewhere that one may be able (points at self) to view so if those symbols do come up on posts, then anyone viewing them would read it like it’s their indigenous language. Brilliant idea for a post. I hope this doesn’t start popping up on blogs straight away. (gulps)
7 goinglikesixty
Oct 27th, 2008 at 4:10 pm

@Hermosa Beach Day Spa: Absolutely it would be more difficult to comprehend - exactly the reason twenty-somethings and under would adopt it!