Eats, shoots and leaves?

That's the title of Lynne Truss' book - one of my favorites - about punctuation. My passion for valuing proper language usage received an unexpected boost today in the form of a post on Ragan.com's daily public relations e-mail.

Today's gem was "Comma chameleon: How it changes the color of your meaning." (Here's the link and a footnote *) Rob Reinalda outlines some of the more common comma usage stumbles. The post is a keeper.

We all need refreshers. I, a self-proclaimed "word nerd," don't remember everything from high school English about the parts of speech and punctuation. I do, however, know how to use a reference book to look up what I don't remember (which is a far cry from the lack of care I often see in a lot of writing).

At a time when texting has all but slaughtered the art of the written word, it's nice to see someone else cares enough to write well and to help others write better.

* Never mind the momentary cardiac flutter from the title's play on words, which took me back to my younger years and an affection for the music of Culture Club. You can take the girl out of the 1980s, but you can't take the 80s out of the girl!