“A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.
“Why?” asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife annual and tosses it over his shoulder.
“I’m a panda,” he says, at the door. “Look it up.”
The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.
Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.”
― Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
Very entertaining book, by the way. You wouldn’t expect a book about punctuation to be entertaining, but it is.
That’s an awfully worded title
I agree. The title reminds minds of the saying, “Knowing your shit” vs. “Knowing you’re shit”
― Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
Very entertaining book, by the way. You wouldn’t expect a book about punctuation to be entertaining, but it is.
They’re deluding themselves if they think removing the word “had” to avoid a passive voice is better (“judge had struck down”).