Wednesday February 23, 2005

Eats shoots and leaves

Finished reading this book by Lynn Truss last week. The story of the Panda and the suspect punctuation, which is being fixed by the bear on the front cover of the book is well known I am sure. The Panda is painting out a comma in the title (in red paint of course) that reads "Eats, Shoots & Leaves".

I liken the book to a rant sandwich. Unkind perhaps but if you read this book ignore the first and last chapters and read them later on. It is also not a useful reference book to punctuation, Lynn Truss indicates in her text and in the bibliography more suitable titles to use. However the book is well written and she tell us about the historical development of our punctuation and how it is heading. The examples are clear and well thought out. There are plenty of quotes from people and books which are amusing and interesting. The book's chapters deal with often used and abused common punctuation in order of popularity the comma, apostrophe, quotes then the ! , ? brackets etc.

The story on the back of the book is worth repeating:

A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots into the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panada produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual 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."

So did I learn anything? Yes I did. But I think I have to do some work on my speeling [sic] first as those errors are usually more obvious. Any suggestions ?

Curses no extra bank holiday this year

Now the queen has decided she cannot give herself a day off to attend the wedding of the year that means she won't give us a day off to celebrate too. I was looking forward to the extra day off, parties in streets, waving Union Jack flags etc etc.

How hedges should look in winter

During a recent walk I took this picture. It is a work of art. Years ago during specific intervals hedges in the UK would be subjected to this treatment. It looks a bit drastic but it is exactly how to maintain a good hedge with built in strength and also encouraging new growth from the ground. Nowadays it is a rare sight with hedges being given the flail trimmer treatment which eventually leads to them becoming an unsightly mess which the farmer may or may not pull up. Of course a proper hedge is a excellent place for birds to live and breed. I am of the opinon that if farmers want their set aside money they should maintain the hedges around the field and in dry stone wall areas maintain those walls . Yes it is labour intensive. But you should not get something for nothing.