Eats shoots and leaves... Lynne Truss

A fine fall day in Southern Alberta today. i left for a lunch meeting about an hour early. That is the beauty of Saturdays, i have the time to lolly-gag, which is another term for taking my time. i arrived early, book in hand.

Eats Shoots & Leaves is hailed as "the Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation!" by Lynne Truss.

i would expect that punctuation sticklers around the world have no doubt found occasion to nit pick my writing. i recall the red markings on my papers at College all to vividly, like they were being marked yesterday. Sadly, i am a self-aware rule breaker. i wonder actually, if our book club didn't pick this book as a not-so-subtle hint for me? Over a hundred years ago Edwin Markam wrote that "genius is the ability to take a hint!"... hmmm, food for thought.

reading while drinking an egg nogg latte, i found this example that illustrates the topical style of the book (so far).

-Charles the First walked and talked half an hour after his head was cut off.

Children sitting in County Exams in the 1930's would be asked to correctly punctuate the above sentence. Which is correctly punctuated below:

-Charles the First walked and talked. Half an hour after, his head was cut off.

Either way, Charles the First has a rough go of it!