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Anti-Development Lobby Overrun With Excess Punctuation
Dear Sir,
I was enjoying a delightful day out in upstate NY yesterday when I came across large placards outside a house (13 Main Street, I believe). A 40' foot (sic) condo was being planned. As I lay on the sidewalk recovering from the shock of discovering that there were property developers in New York state I began to get concerned. The signs (I believe there were three of them) were, I noticed infested, nay, overrun with....
excess punctuation!
Never before had I seen so many nonsensical commas and hyphens! Now, I don’t claim (nor have I ever) to be a perfect punctuator. By all accounts my punctuation is pretty appalling (I’m guilty of over using "Oxford commas" for one thing), not to mention my atrocious spelling and somewhat rudimentary grasp of syntax, but the level of mis-punctuation in this sign was awe inspiring.
Now, normally, I’m very much for the preservation of green belt and undeveloped land but with the anti-development lobby so clearly lacking enough education to form coherent arguments in favour of protecting the skyline of Cold Spring, I’m thinking that I might side with the developers this time. I could do with a holiday home actually, somewhere to while away the summer days watching the locals catching phosphorescent crabs from the Hudson...
Perhaps the creators of the placards might like to invest in the book "Eats, shoots and leaves" by Lynne Truss. I think that they could find it enlightening.
Thomas Blessington
England
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