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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?").
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They say that dashes “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like em dashes—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.
Emdashes, founded in 2004, is currently written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. (Unsigned posts through October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.)
The site is designed and maintained by House of Pretty and illustrated by Jesse Ewing for Inkleaf Studio. Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (who also draws our daily comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The kissable Emdashes logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
Other writing by Emily Gordon
- Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World; PDF, p. 20)
- Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, man about town, and New Yorker founding father (for Print)
- Report: Learning to read with comic books--that are edited by Françoise Mouly (for Print)
- Interview: Designer Eleanor Grosch (for Print)
- Proposal: a better-designed Metrocard (for A Brief Message)
- Review: Charles Addams: A Cartoonist's Life by Linda H. Davis (for Newsday)
- Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Review: 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)
- Report: Eustace Tilley spruces up for The New Yorker's website redesign (for Print)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- Micro-essay: on saving time through inspiration (for A Brief Message)
- Review: books about various New Yorker cartoonists by Liza Donnelly and Iain Topliss (for Newsday)
- Profile: screenwriter and novelist Joe Keenan (for Newsday)
- Review: The Complete New Yorker (for Print)
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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