Guest Post...Doing It All For Aleyna - Eats Shoots And Leaves

Alex is one in a million. She's one of the most warm-hearted (and hilarious) people I know.  I have followed her fab blog 'Doing It All For Aleyna' since I started blogging and her blog posts just have me in stitches plus her posts about her amazing little girl are gorgeous. I was lucky enough to meet her at CyberMummy in June and then amazingly (on my part - still don't know how I made it there!) we were both up for awards at the MAD blog awards in September.  I shared a room with her. Sadly I was a boring old fart being pregnant but Alex looked after me like a true friend and I'll always be grateful for that.

I'm thrilled to have one of her funnies on my blog. Although now I'm completely paranoid about my punctuation. I give you her guest post - Eats Shoots And Leaves...


I was so excited and honoured to have been asked by the beautiful, talented, hilarious and amazing Heather to do a guest post for her whilst she lives it large in Florida.  And then I wasn't.


Whatever am I going to write?  Then it came to me.  I am going to openly confess something over on another blog.  Yes.  Genius.


So here it goes....


I think I might be a grammar bully.


I am not alone.  One of my best friends is also a member of the "word police" and many years ago, I gave her the fabulous book, Eats shoots and leaves for Christmas.  A book for people who love punctuation and get upset about it. 


The author, Lynne Truss, through her passion for punctuation was able to inject some humour into the misuse, or even lack of use, of the comma. (Please let me have put all the commas in their correct places in that last sentence).  


An amphiboly (for that is the correct terminology, don't you know?), describes the ambiguity of a sentence whereby its meaning depends entirely on punctuation


I am always interested and even a little bit delighted to see a new amphiboly.


Here are a couple of my favourite examples.


An English professor wrote these words on the chalkboard and asked his students to punctuate it correctly:


"a woman without her man is nothing"


The males in the class wrote:
"A woman, without her man, is nothing"


The females wrote:
"A woman: without her man, is nothing"

But it wasn't until I came across the following that I felt truly complete....

Stop clubbing, baby seals.

Lynn Truss has also designed a "save the comma" game through which you can test your punctuation skills.  


Having ashamedly got 9 out of 10, I hereby revoke my self-proclaimed title of grammar Nazi.  Oops!