WORDmeister Note: This obscure gem from writer Gertrude Stein about punctuation is offered in honor of the 11th annual National Grammar Day (which was Monday but I missed it). Any excuse to play with the Oxford commas, strippers and presidents.
“The comma, well at the most a comma is a poor period that lets you stop
and take a breath but if you want to take a breath you ought to know
yourself that you want to take a breath. It is not like stopping
altogether has something to do with going on, but taking a breath well
you are always taking a breath and why emphasize one breath rather than
another breath. Anyway that is the way I felt about it and I felt that
about it very very strongly. And so I almost never used a comma.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874-1946), novelist and poet, “On Punctuation,” 1935.
• Editorial Comment: Gertrude didn’t like question marks either.
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Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD
“I
don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If
you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a
little.” —Tom Stoppard
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