Pickle For The Knowing Ones Poem by Sidi Mahtrow

THE LOWLY COMMA OR A PICKLE FOR THE KNOWING ONES
(or why use a comma?)

Lord Timothy Dexter anticipated the Danes,
By more than a century, in taking pains,
To ensure that those who read and write,
Could find a way if they might.

To inser punctuation, as they please,
Into the written word without a wheeze.
His solution was just and wisely decided,
A stroke of wisdom with a bit of humor provided.

Reacting to complaints that his book did lack,
The elements that educator and hack,
Insisted were essential if one was to understand,
The Writer's intent to a man.

He added a page at the end,
Not intended to offend,
But filled with commas, periods and such,
To be added to text by the reader's touch.

A review of Lord Dexter's 'Pickle' serves us well,
****************************************/pickle.html
When in a stroke of genius with many a stroke,
'a pickle for the knowing ones' he wrote.

He reminds us that while proper language is no joke,
Rules of grammarians and pedants are a heavy yoke.
And with Government regulation,
There will be no sure-fire salvation.

, , , , , .....? ? ? ! ! ! !

The above was inspired by an editorial in the St. Petersburg Times: April 6,2002. And should have been laid to rest, except that with the coming of the Christmas (2003) season, a book was published to address problems related to punctuation and such. As with all new ideas (and it seems that punctuation is a new found idea for some; others just ignore it) even the title of the book raised the ire of some.

Ms. Lynn Truss' book, Eats, Shoots, Leaves has a shaggy dog tale from which it got its name. Much has been written on the Internet on the origin and spin-offs from the story which involves a panda (kola bear, various marsupials, mammals (including Australians)) and a prostitute.