Chip on Your Shoulder

Celebrate, celebrate, punctuate to the music!

Today is "National Punctuation Day," billed as "A celebration of the lowly comma, correctly used quotes and other proper uses of periods, semicolons and the ever-mysterious ellipsis."

What I like about this site, created by a former newspaperman Jeff Rubin, is that:

1. It features an official food dish: Punctuation Meat Loaf.
2. There is a game plan for National Punctuation Day. Among the choices:

• Take a leisurely stroll, paying close attention to store signs with incorrectly punctuated words.
• Stop in those stores to correct the owners.
• If the owners are not there, leave notes.
• Write an error-free letter to a friend.
• Take a nap. It has been a long day.

(I learned about this from "Today's Word on Journalism," a daily feature provided by Ted Pease, a j-prof at Utah State University. Thanks to Ted and his tipster, Alex Halsey. Subscribe by e-mailing tpease@cc.usu.edu.)