***
A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.
“Why?” asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.
“I’m a panda,” he says, at the door. “Look it up.”
The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.
“Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.”
So, punctuation really does matter, even if it is only occasionally a matter of life and death.
“Why?” asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.
“I’m a panda,” he says, at the door. “Look it up.”
The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.
“Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.”
So, punctuation really does matter, even if it is only occasionally a matter of life and death.
***
This appears on the back cover of Eats, Shoots & Leaves : The zero tolerance approach to punctuation by Lynne Truss. Just finished reading over span of 2 library loan periods. Yay for free library renewals! Had wanted to get hold of this book when it was published way back in 2003/4 cos i'm trickled by the oh-so smart title; and i think i'm a stickler in grammar at heart. However, the modern world has diminished my competency in it... (Oh oh! Did you know that these 3 dots ... are called ellipses?!) i'm just so pleasantly surprised by the books i find in the library nowadays. Just today, i saw this children's book written by Madonna : The English Roses. But i think it is more for tweens than for kids. lol.
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