the only good thing about sitting at the dmv for over 4 hours was that i got to finish reading my book: Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss. it starts with a revised version of one of my favorite jokes:

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

“Why?” asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda 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.”

get it? there shouldn’t be a comma after the eats. if you didn’t catch that, you definitely need to read the book. it’s a book about punctuation. but it’s a great book! really! it not only explains how punctuation works, but why it is important, and gives informative and entertaining examples. it is very helpful and enjoyable, and has lots of dry and witty humor.