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Commas save lives

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commasTshirt

I have a huge problem during the Christmas shopping season. I tend to buy too much. Not for others, but for myself. Once the sales begin and the purse strings are loosened, it’s amazing how many things I see that I want or need for myself. And what better time to buy them than when they are on sale, perhaps with free shipping and other discounts. It’s prudent to buy those items now, right? I try to observe a rule of never buying anything for myself in the month before Christmas … but I’m weak. And besides, Santa can’t be everywhere.

One of my weaknesses is novelty T-shirts. A person can’t have too many T-shirts. This particular shirt caught my eye last week. Unfortunately it’s only one of many novelty shirts at Signals.com that are appropriate for writers, editors, and grammar grinches of all kinds. No, I didn’t buy it. But I sure was tempted.

I did, however, find and order the perfect shirt for my daughter-in-law. It says, “I drink coffee for your protection.”

Uh oh. I just noticed the commas shirt is on sale now. Ohhhh, at that price it’s a steal … they’re practically giving them away! …

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Susan Richards is a retired editor living in Thornton, Colo., near the family and mountains she loves. Her long-standing Pied Type blog contains some 3,800 posts dating back to 2002.

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11 thoughts on “Commas save lives”

  1. Oh that is a great one PT, as is the one about the coffee. I’m also a huge fan of novelty shirts, and could easily see myself in the “Never Trust An Atom” and “Pink Freud” ones! 😀

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      1. Called a mondegreen (I just learned that), the Wikipedia article includes the following seasonal example (also new to me):

        Sometimes, the modified version of a lyric becomes standard, as is the case with The Twelve Days of Christmas. The original has “four colly birds” (colly means black); sometime around the turn of the twentieth century, these became calling birds, which is the lyric used in the 1909 Frederic Austin version.

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        1. How delightful! I didn’t even know it had a name. I must tell you, I have always been fascinated by wordplay. I am actually married to Mrs. Malaprop – but she calls herself “Mollie”. 😆

  4. Pingback: Comma comma comma comma comma chameleon, you come and go, you come and go | commatology

  5. COMMA CHAMELEON ???
    I had no idea there were such vile malapropsisms around. That’s like Churchill’s riddle inside a mystery wrapped in an enigma ..

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