Author T. L. Gray, who inspired me to attempt blogging, was kind enough to mention my first, nascent blog on her Facebook page: “Check out my friends first blog!”

    I gratefully thanked her, but added a warning to beware of the apostrophe police. Just couldn’t help myself.

    After reading Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss almost ten years ago, I’ve had a heightened awareness of missing and misplaced punctuation--not that my own’s flawless, I s’pose. Truss presents erudite yet humorous and thus memorable commentary on punctuation usage, especially the use or misuse of apostrophes and commas.

    E.g. from the Introduction:

“A cat has claws at the end of its paws.

A comma’s a pause at the end of a clause.”

    My friend, Mary Cunningham, author of the YA Cynthia’s Attic series of books, occasionally sports a Tee decorated with the statements:

“Punctuation Counts. Let’s eat, Grandma.”

The comma is critical.

    Still, among good writers punctuation may be unpredictable. The unconventional and highly lauded Cormac McCarthy, for example, eschews quotation marks in dialogue and other punctuation. He thinks there is no reason “to blot the page with weird little marks.” My own omissions are generally less intentional except in poetry where format and meter control the flow of words, and punctuation is often unnecessary, even disruptive.

    I still refer occasionally to a diminutive, yellowing 1979 edition of The Elements of Style by Strunk and White, a gift from someone who apparently I could benefit from reading it. I own the much later illustrated hardback edition too but most often refer to the pocket-sized paperback for a concise and simplified guide to punctuation and usage.

    Richard < : - ( Blog 2

I'll be away for a little while now. Hope to hear from you soon.