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Hugging a Semicolon: National Punctuation Day
Filed under: Looked Into Tagged: celebrations, contests, punctuation
Paul “The Wavy Rule” Morris writes:
“Hey, it’s National Punctuation Day today!” I exclaimed to a co-worker who had just come back from break involving coffee-drinking and texting on a cellphone, an act that sadly failed to employ any punctuation marks.
“Oh, okay,” he said. “What am I supposed to do now? Hug a semicolon?”
Well, no, National Punctuation Day does not involve hugging semicolons (which are, in any case, notoriously shy punctuation marks). This Day, which has a website devoted to it, has a series of activities that you can do to honor these symbols of ours. Cook a question-mark meatloaf, bake exclamation-point cookies, take a picture of annoying punctuation gaffes, and celebrate the difference that good punctuation-mark use makes.
The benevolent founder of Emdashes (itself a website name that celebrates a punctuation mark), Emily Gordon, who eats, shoots, and leaves, loves and respects punctuation marks—so much so, in fact, that she decided to run a contest to name an unnamed one. (Interroverti, The Qué Mark, and Quiggle were the winners.)
Aldus Manutius, and all the typographical innovators in history, would be proud. Let us celebrate National Punctuation Day by using punctuation marks even more: let’s use semicolons in our text messaging (“The party sounds fun; I should go”), interpuncts on our iPhones, and ellipses in our e-mails (“You didn’t go to the party… Why?”).
About us
Hello! We're a small band of media enthusiasts, culture addicts, and journalists based in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Emdashes, formerly a New Yorker fan site, is our collection of conversations—mostly civilized—about magazines, movies, politics, design, punctuation, and other things that stir us.
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We welcome tips, questions, comments, and corrections, and are always on the lookout for ardent, obsessive new contributors. Click here to email us.
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Tell me more
Dashes, some say, “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like an em dash itself—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.
Emdashes, founded in 2004, is written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. All posts before October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.
The site was designed by House of Pretty with illustrations by Jesse R. Ewing.
Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (author of our web comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The Emdashes pencil logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
Other writing by Emily Gordon
- Writing on theater: reviews (for Time Out Chicago; imperfect but workable search results)
- Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World)
- Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, bon vivant, New Yorker founding father (for Print)
- Slide show: the Coney Island Mermaid Parade (for NYCgo.com)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Homage: Celebrating lindy-hop legend Frankie Manning (for NYCgo.com)
- Inquiry: Does a New Republic redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
- Interviews: four up-and-coming designers under 30 (for Print)
- Profile: novelist and dance critic Laura Jacobs (for Newsday)
Blogroll highlights
- Box Office Boffo
- World of Pollux
- Jonathan Taylor
- Carolita Johnson
- Songs for blogroll lovers (more links)
- Follow us on Twitter
- Befriend us on Facebook
- Get a t-shirt at the Emdashes store
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Comments
Ode to a semicolon
_________________________
Thou art the fairest mark of all;
Thy graceful curve and stellar dot
Would e’en the singing lark enthrall;
Who’d spurn thy use had better not.
_________________________
Re an apostrophe
_________________________
Thou art the grimmest mark of all —
Thy sword of Damoclean edge
Would e’en a Hercules appall;
Who’d urge thy use had better hedge.
—
Aloha ~~~ Ozzie Maland ~~~ San Diego
More poems, please, Ozzie!
Love it.
Who could possibly resist such a request — your asking for more poems —? But I presume you mean in reference to punctuation marks, as to which my supply is now exhausted. In case my presumption is erroneous, I’ll give you a literary limerick and a literary parody that will surely exhaust your patience and that of all your readers:
________________________________
A Canterbury tale of a slaughter
Told of an abducted daughter:
Not taken by boat,
Or tied on a goat —
Most likely a flying Chaucer.
________________________________
I shot a squat into the sky —
They fell in pain, those folks nearby;
For, so quickly did my legs arise,
A pungent smell did them surprise.
—
Aloha ~~~ Ozzie Maland ~~~ San Diego