Punctuation

Many of us have a problem -- A deep, fundamental problem that leads to grave misunderstandings. And it's a sad fact that this problem causes others to regard us as being less intelligent. This problem is punctuation, and people who don't use it.

Punctuation dates back to the early days of writing when our ancestors were sitting around, picking meat off a kobold leg to which they applied their new technique they called "cooking." One of them remarked that they should try to pass this knowledge around, so everyone else could enjoy this strange thing called a 'hot meal'.

Now, it was a common practice for the tribe leader to carve notches into a large bone to count how many animals they had killed that season -- But no one had ever thought of writing down actual words.

Now, these intrepid tribesmen handled the task before them fairly readily -- They invented letters, and legbones bearing their recipe spread across the tribes in the valley. Now, at this time, they had yet to invent punctuation marks. This proved most unfortunate when one tribe master wrote another, attempting to unify the two tribes once and for all.

"i want to cook you want hot meal"

There was a difference of opinion in what this meant. The writer meant to ask, "I want to cook. You want hot meal?" However, the recipient interpreted this to read "I want to cook you. Want hot meal."

Both tribes were wiped out as a result of that little misunderstanding. So, let us learn from their mistakes. Use punctuation.

Wuhao Iosef Mythrin

Written Material © 2000/2002 Wuhao
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