sticklers unite!

A few months ago, I laughed and learned my way through Eats, Shoots & Leaves, a clever little book on punctuation by Lynne Truss. I consider grammar to be not only a tool, but an art form, and even though I know I'm often guilty of making grammatical errors myself, I can't help but let the stickler in me point my nose in the air over signs and menus littered with typos and improper uses of the apostrophe.

Take this sign in my neighborhood, for example. It's not a punctuation mistake, but rather one from its close relative, spelling:


While launder does mean "to wash clothes," I'm pretty sure they meant Laundromat. Every time I pass by this little laundry facility, I can't help but wonder if it's actually a money laundering joint using washers and dryers as a cover up. I mean, this is Brooklyn, the city where some friends of ours spent a period of time renting an apartment over a funeral home from members of the Italian mafia who were apparently using said funeral home as a cover up for a few questionable activities of their own, if you catch my drift.

In all likelihood, though, this Laundromat's probably just owned and operated by immigrants who were still learning English at the time this sign was made. But it's still fun to wonder, don't you think?

Just as poor punctuation is fun to poke fun at, good punctuation is fun to praise. Not too long ago, the NYC Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) started running an anti-littering ad on the city's subways and buses. It read:

Bad news!

It doesn't matter what paper you read, its language or viewpoints.
Please put it in the trash can; that's good news for everyone.

The clever use of of the semicolon in this ad was noticed by the New York Times, which ran a fantastic article praising that minute piece of punctuation and the MTA employee who penned it. According to the article:

Semicolon sightings in the city are unusual, period, much less in exhortations drafted by committees of civil servants. In literature and journalism, not to mention in advertising, the semicolon has been largely jettisoned as a pretentious anachronism.

So it really should be no wonder why the stickler in me smiles smugly to myself every time I see the ad.

And speaking of grammar, last night I received a much-anticipated phone call from my brother with post-ultrasound news. We now know that their baby will be addressed by the pronouns he and him. While I'd have been thrilled for them no matter what the gender, I have to admit I'm pretty excited that Garrett's first-ever cousin will be a little boy. They can be buddies!