Punctuation: Confusion & Clarification

As a schoolboy I was confused by, ‘King Charles walked and talked half an hour after his head was chopped off.’ I knew a bit about the Oliver Cromwell and the Civil War, that Charles 1^st was beheaded in 1649, but this gruesome picture stirred my young imagination.

Then it was explained to me. The text should have read, ‘King Charles walked and talked. Half an hour after, his head was chopped off.’

The difference punctuation makes!  

I’ve heard many versions of the Panda joke. The essence is:

Panda walks into a bar and orders a meal. He eats his meal, pays, takes out a gun, and shoots a few people.

Bartender asks: ‘Why did you do that?’ Panda replies, ‘I’m a Panda. Look it up.’ Panda walks out of the bar.

Bartender looks up ‘Panda’. He reads: ‘The panda is a black and white bear. It eats shoots and leaves.’ …or did it say ‘It eats, shoots and leaves.’?

Another meaning changed by punctuation.

In ‘Eats, Shoots & Leaves’ Lynne Truss quotes many examples of how meaning can change with different punctuation. I particularly chucked at:

A woman, without her man, is nothing.

A woman: without her, man is nothing.

I was particularly interested in her Biblical examples, where the original text was without punctuation. For example:

I’ve been brought up with Jesus saying to the crucified thief, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.’ Jesus says that the thief will go straight to heaven.  

Some think that it should read, ‘Truly I tell you today, you will be with me in paradise.’ This doesn’t say exactly when he will be in paradise… so purgatory-believing Roman Catholics have favoured that…

Theology can be changed by a comma!

…Musing on… ‘Comfort, comfort my people,’ (Please go and comfort my people.) Or: ‘Comfort, comfort, my people,’ (Cheer up, be encouraged, you’re my people)

…Smiling at the sign: ‘Potatoes turn left’ that should say ‘Potatoes. Turn Left.’