Eats, Shoots and Leaves
May. 19th, 2004 02:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pjthompsonThat's the title of a great book on punctuation I found in England: Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss. I'm recommending it to everyone. The story which gave the book its name revolves around a definition of what a panda is and how the punctuation of said definition caused problems: "A panda is an animal which eats shoots and leaves." However, the person writing the definition put a comma after eats, so it read: "A panda is an animal which eats, shoots and leaves." Implying, of course, that the panda is an animal which goes into a pub, orders a meal, eats it, shoots the proprietor then leaves. :-)
This punctuation stuff is important in order to bring clarity to communication. Clarity is a good thing. Not everyone on OWW seems to appreciate that and I've stopped (for the most part, unless things are really bad) telling people about punctuation errors. We live in a post-clarity world and many folks, OWWers and Interneters and others, don't take this stuff at all seriously. But it seems to me that editors out there would not be appreciative of really bone-headed punctuation foul-ups. It seems to me that if you want to get published, you'd take the time to learn this stuff...
Then again, maybe I'm way too old school and need to seriously get over myself.
And speaking of shoots and leaves...We visited this real cool place in Cornwall called the Lost Gardens of Heligan. You can find out more about it here:
http://www.heligan.com
Essentially, though, this was a big-deal estate with extensive woodland and gardens and farming which fell on hard times. They were going to sell it off piecemeal, I believe, but a man with vision in the 1970s convinced the National Trust to buy it and they've been restoring the gardens since. It's an immense amount of acreage, including woodlands, lake-size ponds, formal gardens, farming, and a wildlife refuge. Just gorgeous.
Our own photographic stylings of Heligan can now be seen at:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/boneandsteel/3518722117/in/album-72157617867686631/
This includes a panorama shot I assembled. I think it's rather spiffing. Photoshop is my God.
And I've only got 5 or so more rolls to process and post. =:0
This punctuation stuff is important in order to bring clarity to communication. Clarity is a good thing. Not everyone on OWW seems to appreciate that and I've stopped (for the most part, unless things are really bad) telling people about punctuation errors. We live in a post-clarity world and many folks, OWWers and Interneters and others, don't take this stuff at all seriously. But it seems to me that editors out there would not be appreciative of really bone-headed punctuation foul-ups. It seems to me that if you want to get published, you'd take the time to learn this stuff...
Then again, maybe I'm way too old school and need to seriously get over myself.
And speaking of shoots and leaves...We visited this real cool place in Cornwall called the Lost Gardens of Heligan. You can find out more about it here:
http://www.heligan.com
Essentially, though, this was a big-deal estate with extensive woodland and gardens and farming which fell on hard times. They were going to sell it off piecemeal, I believe, but a man with vision in the 1970s convinced the National Trust to buy it and they've been restoring the gardens since. It's an immense amount of acreage, including woodlands, lake-size ponds, formal gardens, farming, and a wildlife refuge. Just gorgeous.
Our own photographic stylings of Heligan can now be seen at:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/boneandsteel/3518722117/in/album-72157617867686631/
This includes a panorama shot I assembled. I think it's rather spiffing. Photoshop is my God.
And I've only got 5 or so more rolls to process and post. =:0
no subject
Date: 2004-05-20 09:21 am (UTC)Plus, it confirms some of my instincts about British punctuation vs. American. Note next time you see me put the stop outside of quotes.
:-P
no subject
Date: 2004-05-20 07:17 pm (UTC)