Today is National Punctuation Day!

“The writer who neglects punctuation, or mispunctuates, is liable to be misunderstood…. For the want of merely a comma, it often occurs that an axiom appears a paradox, or that a sarcasm is converted into a sermonoid.”

Edgar Allan Poe, “Marginalia,” Graham’s Magazine, Feb. 1848

I’m afraid that I can be rather liberal with punctuation and fairly inconsistent— I do love a misplaced dash— but I don’t think I’m guilty of the next, at least not too often. (Ignore the first line of this post, please.)

“Cut out all those exclamation marks. An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own jokes.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald

And I liked this winner of last year’s haiku contest at the day’s official website.

Time to eat grandma.
Save her with a comma or
Simply savor her.

—Tom Murawski

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