Yum: ambiguity in science writing.

Also called: the importance of commas. Especially when the original attempt at humour falls flat.

I read this to Lydia this morning, from Gary Parker's Exploring the World Around You:

"Consumers include plant eaters or herbivores....An organism that eats anything, such as a teenager, is an omnivore."

Lydia, understandably, looked at me in horror.

Even with the commas, that's a bit creepy, don't you think?

Punctuation Rant

I opened the weekly "shopper" paper yesterday, looking for yard sale ads.  Our "shopper" has gone to a mostly-articles format, since few people want to pay for print ads these days.  The headline that caught my attention said something like this:

"Prom and Grad, call for true elegance."

Did we learn this in school?

Were we ever told to write, "Pugsley and Wednesday, are playing with their octopus?"

Were we ever told that it was correct to say, "You and I, could make beautiful music together?"

Of course not.  So when did people start doing it?

The composer of such titles should write on the blackboard one hundred times:

I will not separate the subject of a sentence from its verb with a comma.  Even a plural subject (two nouns joined with "and").

That's it.  I'm done.