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“To those who care about punctuation, a sentence such as "Thank God its Friday" (without the apostrophe) rouses feelings not only of despair but of violence. The confusion of the possessive "its" (no apostrophe) with the contractive "it's" (with apostrophe) is an unequivocal signal of illiteracy and sets off a Pavlovian "kill" response in the average stickler.”
― Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
― Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
“For any true stickler, you see, the sight of the plural word “Book’s” with an apostrophe in it will trigger a ghastly private emotional process similar to the stages of bereavement, though greatly accelerated. First there is shock. Within seconds, shock gives way to disbelief, disbelief to pain, and pain to anger. Finally (and this is where the analogy breaks down), anger gives way to a righteous urge to perpetrate an act of criminal damage with the aid of a permanent marker.”
― Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
― Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
“A panda walks into a cafe. 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 annual 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.”
― Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife annual 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.”
― Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
“The rule is: the word 'it's' (with apostrophe) stands for 'it is' or 'it has'. If the word does not stand for 'it is' or 'it has' then what you require is 'its'. This is extremely easy to grasp. Getting your itses mixed up is the greatest solecism in the world of punctuation. No matter that you have a PhD and have read all of Henry James twice. If you still persist in writing, 'Good food at it's best', you deserve to be struck by lightning, hacked up on the spot and buried in an unmarked grave.”
― Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
― Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
Chris’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Chris’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
892 books
|
55 friends
2,540 books
|
89 friends
478 books
|
79 friends
70 books
|
35 friends
22 books
|
35 friends
70 books
|
91 friends
50 books
|
408 friends
0 books
|
82 friends
More friends…
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